Re: Estou aqui no Recife, Brasil

[RLB <sales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Aug 14, 11:23=A0pm, mleuck <m.le...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Aug 14, 11:41=A0am, RLB <sa...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Aug 14, 11:34=A0am, JoeRaisin <JoeRai...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > > The first time's always the hardest...
>
> > I'll take your word for it.
>
> > > I would hazard that Brazil is a bit more affluent than Thailand.
>
> > Im not so sure about that. Neither ountry is listed among the 50
> > poorest nations in the world. =A0I do know that Brazil's constitution
> > guarantees health care to all citizens. =A0The quality is not the same
> > in public hospitals as in private ones. =A0However, Brazil does provide
> > free ARVs to all HIV/AIDS patients. =A0Brazil has also been able to
> > limit the spread of the disease to less than half what the WHO
> > predicted.
>
> Brazil has a GDP of 1.99 trillion, Thailand 534 billion

So that makes it OK for Merck to gouge Brazilians?

> > > Shouldn't the countries that CAN pay a bit more do so?
>
> > The drug is actually quite inexpensive to produce. Development costs
> > have long ago been covered. =A0Merck is actually far better off than
> > many of the countries which buys its products.
>
> And? Does that make it okay for Brazil to steal from them?

Brazil didnt steal anything. They declared a compulsory license. That
allowed Brazil to produce the drug while compensating Merck for its
royalties.

> > > Have you any idea how much it costs to develop, test and bring to mar=
ket anew drug? =A0I don't because my calculator only goes out to ten places=
.
>
> > Yes. =A0Several years ago it was estimated around $100M. =A0Do you have
> > any idea how much Merck has profited from AIDS drugs?
>
> Profit? how dare they! That cost is closer to 500 million these days,
> much of it caused by liability issues

Actually, most of the cost is due to FDA regulations and youre wrong
about the cost.