Update on Go Brazil!
Reuters reported today that Brazil rejected a price cut from Merck & Co. for its AIDS drug, and now the president will decide whether his country will honor the drug patent or import a cheaper generic version.
Brazil provides AIDS drugs free of charge to anyone in the country who needs them, and had asked Merck to sell the drug for the same price it sells it in Thailand, 65 cents per pill. Merck made a counter-offer of $1.10 per pill, according to Reuters, which was rejected by Brazil's ministry of health.
As a cancer patient who is taking two very expensive drugs, Herceptin and Avastin, for which there are no generics, I'm all in favor of countries breaking drug patents and stopping the obscene profiteering on sick people's misery. Obviously, I'm not an unbiased observer.
And I still say, "Go Brazil!"
Read my earlier story:
Read the Reuters report:
Brazil rejects Merck price offer for AIDS drug
@ Jeanne Sather 2007.
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