First mobile blog entry

Test pic

Winther in Ithaca

Trip to San Francisco

the last AYCE sushi

... at least for the next 5 months :(

don't feed your laptop beer

new years 2007

other holiday fun

holiday party at work

Colbert Report

underground economy

Skating in Bryant Park

patents

I recently received the following email from my friend and former roommate Nathalie. See my response below.


Subject: Tell Novartis to stop blocking inexpensive medicines for poor people

Drug company Novartis is challenging India's Patent law to prevent cheaper generic versions of its drugs being sold in India. If they win, this will threaten India's ability to produce affordable generic drugs, including HIV medicines, which are benefiting millions of people in India and other developing countries.

This could seriously impede poor people obtaining cheaper medicines and is against an international agreement that declares that developing countries can produce and import cheaper versions of medicines in the interests of public health.

Millions of poor people depend on these life-saving medicines.Please contact Novartis today and tell them to drop their lawsuit!

http://act.oxfamamerica.org/campaign/novartis?rk=h1ApEen18EsFW


My response:

1. Novartis is not doing anything illegal. They're simply appealing a previous court decision. The right to appeal is an important part of most judicial systems, and the drug company should not be denied this right. If their claim has no merit the Indian court will simply uphold the previous decision.

2. I think it's a bit pretentious to dictate the appropriate way for Indian courts to interpret and/or amend their own laws from half a world away. Establishing and enforcing effective and equitable intellectual property laws is at least as important to the future of a developing economy as access to inexpensive drugs.

3. Patent laws exist to encourage innovation and protect inventors' rights. If Indian generic drug makers were allowed to compete with Novartis, what would prevent them from selling these drugs outside of India - to the whole world? The pharmaceutical industry would suffer the same fate as the music, movie, and auto industries (China currently makes replicas of several cars such as VW and Smart). I would even argue that medical innovations are more important than those in other fields and require even more protection.

What do you think?

peculier

igi's pad

it's official (2)

birthday... continued

birthday

The Little Dog Laughed (on Broadway)

food... finally!

Another NYC Moment

Weekend With Omar Continued...

Weekend With Omar & Friends

Jeff should have gotten this license plate

Saturday Night With Friends

On Saturday we had a very cheap and tasty Vietnamese meal at Nha Trang (at Baxter & Canal), followed by a few drinks at Double Happiness (at Mott & Broome), which led us to Medina (29th St & 10th Ave) - a good night with old friends (or an old night with good friends?)