
Large pharmaceutical companies have been responsible for stifling innovation in the field of medicine around the world. In underdeveloped countries, they fight to make sure that generic drugs are not allowed to be sold so that their far costlier branded drugs can have a monopoly in the market. Millions of dollars are spent on patent wars to make sure there are no new entrants in the lucrative pharmaceutical market. Pakistan is particularly susceptible to this as it is in such dire need of foreign investment that we allow multinational companies to ride roughshod over us in any manner they please.
Temptation, weakness and the profit motive are not excuses for forgiving those in the government or the companies who destroyed the local hepatitis C project. In Pakistan, hepatitis C remains a massive problem because vaccinations are not freely available and drugs are prohibitively expensive. Instead of subsidising drugs, the government is actively working on behalf of big drug companies. Stifling local innovation in the field is a crime that could have potentially cost thousands of lives. That is something the guilty parties will have to live with and hopefully be punished for.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 25th, 2012.
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