Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Signs of Panic over the H1N1 Flu

This statement by WHO says to me that panic is setting in at the top:
WHO's Chan was asked about countries' freedom to break Roche's patent on Tamiflu, an antiviral drug that has proven effective in treating the H1N1 swine flu, in order to manufacture it locally and, presumably, more cheaply.

Chan left the door open: "When and what the country is going to decide, it is their decision."
Patents and intellectual property rights are like the feudal rights of the Middle Ages, you didn't lightly cross them. The fact that the senior figure in WHO is implicitly giving the signal that countries can break the patent in order to rush production of the only known treatment for this flu says to me that leadership at WHO is panicking.

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