IF YOU want to do something well, do it yourself. Newly industrialised countries of the "south" are developing cheap treatments for neglected tropical diseases, filling the void left by western drug firms, which focus on diseases of the rich.
The world's poorest people suffer from tropical diseases such as rabies, hookworm and river blindness. Yet few treatments have been developed by big pharma: of 1556 drugs approved between 1975 and 2004, only 21 were for such diseases.
Now the first inventory of drugs developed by small southern companies to tackle diseases of the poor reveals a further 62 treatments for tropical diseases, with 28 already on sale, including a cholera vaccine.
Many are only sold locally, and so could be exported, says Peter Singer of the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health in Toronto, Canada, and co-author of the inventory in Health Affairs (DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.28.6.1760). "It's a new vein of gold that hasn't been fully mined."
Singer admits that donated drugs from western companies may have helped tackle some neglected diseases, but only on an ad hoc basis. In contrast, southern companies are developing tailored and affordable products. To illustrate potential savings, Singer cites a hepatitis B vaccine developed in India, which though not strictly for a tropical disease, costs just 28 cents per shot compared with $25 in the west.
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Have your say
wow, imagine that. what a concept. you mean if we don't try to babysit the rest of the world they can do something for themselves?
I think you'll find that they would have developed faster if they weren't crippled by disease. It's nothing to do with self-dependency it's just geography and you got lucky
I think 'colonise' is the word you were looking for.
I also think Palastine could do something if they were let out of the concentration camps/ allowed to return from refugee camps and given some of their land back.
You need a history lesson but I suppose your ignorance here is forgivable.
I do hope that wealthier tropical countries will take on better treatments for local diseases like Tsetse fly sleeping sickness, Guinea worm which are horrendous illnesses.
I personally have had friends who have died from diseases in Africa which can be readily treated if caught in time. I have supported their orphaned children ever since but it was a great personal tragedy for the kids to lose both parents. By far malaria is the biggest killer. TB is another big killer as is meningitis.
The lack of medical facilities to do a diagnosis is a big factor for many diseases. Most people have very little money and can't afford a doctor unless it looks like they won't make it through the illness. A doctor is their last resort. Unfortunealtly by the time many people go to the city to get treatment the disease has progressed too far and they succumb.
Even a well trained nurse with good knowledge about local diseases and a few simple machines a simple lab and some simple diagnostic tools could adequately diagnose many diseases and provide treatment. In most parts of Africa this is going to take some outside support. Perhaps every western country could adopt an African country and help to set up a simple local health care program. This would cost far less than the money we throw a development organizations each year.
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US Government buys up US Intellectual Property,
They then sell US IP rights on the cheap to third world Nations,
This encourages New Intellectual Property development in the USA and provides an income from Foreign IP rights. It also constitutes an act of War on third world Nations who might develop one of those cure have been surpressing for half a century.
Companies develop drugs for diseases that occur within their markets. It makes very little sense for a company in the US to develop a drug for a disease that only occurs in Africa, for example. You wouldn't expect a Brazilian company to develop a treatment for frostbite, just so they could export it to Alaska, now would you?
They would if they could develop it easily and sell it profitably. South America must also have markets that would benefit from a cheap frostbite treatment.
Depends on how much alaskans are willing to pay for it.
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