November 27th, 2007

Who is putting profits ahead of patients?

Posted in  Health Care  Intellectual Property 
Author: Tom Giovanetti || Location: Lewisville, Texas, USA

One of the criticisms we constantly hear from the critics of the pharmaceutical industry is that they "put profits ahead of patients."

Their heroes, on the other hand, are the health ministers of developing countries, like Thailand, who "stand up" to the greedy pharmaceutical companies.

It's a common stereotype--the government person who is trying to "help" through government power is the good guy, while the people who are trying to accomplish things through corporate organizational structures are evil, greedy and untrustworthy.

Well, let's take a look at that.

The Minister of Health in Indonesia, Ms. Siti Fadilah Supari, has famously refused to supply key samples of the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus to international researchers because she sees these virus samples as part of Indonesia's "genetic and biological resources."

In other words, she thinks that a disease that originated in Indonesia, or a particular strain of a virus that mutated in Indonesia, is part of Indonesia's natural resources, and wants to be compensated for the profits that might arise from a cure or treatment that is developed based on the virus samples.

It is literally their argument that viruses are part of a nation's natural resources. They argue this under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). You can read more about it with this PDF link if you're interested.

Someday, perhaps soon, hundreds of thousands of people may die from the H5N1 strain of bird flu because Ms. Supari refused to supply virus samples to researchers. THIS is putting profits before patients.

By the way, the World Health Organization (WHO) rewarded Ms. Supari by making her a member of the WHO Executive Board, which tells you something about the World Health Organization.

Don't believe me? Well, Ms. Supari is back in the news this week, and she's at it again.

There is a fairly horrifying story in the news about a man in Indonesia who has astonishing, "tree-like" growths coming out of his body, covering his hands and making him unable to work or be productive.

An American dermatologist visited the man, diagnosed his condition, and has come up with a treatment regime that he thinks will cure the man. And Ms. Supari is . . . angry about it (if you follow the link, there is a somewhat graphic image).

She's angry that the dermatologist took samples of the man's tissues back to the States with him in order to do the research and diagnosis. Why is she angry? The same old reason--she's greedy, and she puts the possible commercial potential ahead of the needs of treating the patient.

"We are offended because the samples were taken from Dede without our permission," she told reporters at the hospital where the man was being treated. "If they are taken abroad, they could become lucrative commodities."

I didn't make that up. Follow the links. She thinks his tissue samples belong to the country, and not to the man, and she thinks the tissue samples should not have been taken out of Indonesia. Apparently, the heck with the goal of treating the poor, suffering man. What really matters is the potential value of his disease to the Indonesia Ministry of Health.

Folks, THAT is putting profits ahead of patients. It is greedy government officials who put profits ahead of patients, not companies who design new drugs and new treatments.

Let's not get too morally confused here. The good guys are the doctors and pharmaceutical companies who are trying to help patients and cure their diseases. The bad guys are the government officials (and NGOs) who put their particular philosophical agenda ahead of the goal of curing diseases and helping patients.