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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (17750)	4/26/2007 8:40:50 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 218740

Brazil demands 60% efavirenz price cut, or may break patent Keith Alcorn, Thursday, April 26, 2007 The Brazilian government announced yesterday that it had taken the first step towards issuing a compulsory license to import Indian generic copies of the anti-HIV drug efavirenz. The decision came after efavirenz’s manufacturer Merck & Co refused to sell the drug to the Brazilian government at the same price recently agreed with the Thai government. The Brazilian government is asking Merck to sell efavirenz at US$0.65 a day, compared to a price of around $1.60 at present – a price reduction of almost 60%. Efavirenz is currently used by 75,000 patients in Brazil, and costs the Brazilian government $43 .8 million a year. Merck says it is committed to reaching an agreement with the Brazilian government, but does not believe compulsory licensing is in the best interests of patients. Yesterday’s announcement declared efavirenz to be a `medicine of public interest`, which means that Merck has seven days to negotiate a new price. If agreement is not reached, further moves towards compulsory licensing could lead to the grant of a license that allows imports of Indian generic versions of efavirenz, and eventually, production of a generic version by Brazilian companies. Brazil is entitled to issue a compulsory license under World Trade Organisation rules, which allows countries facing a public health emergency to override patents where they see it as a necessary step in addressing a public health problem.

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (17750)	4/26/2007 2:55:40 PM
From: Slagle	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 218740

Maurice, What you people down there need to do is to grow a spine, get a backbone, take responsibility for yourself and don't rely on the state to do each and every thing for you. Don't be such sissy wimps. Yikes. You mention Columbia, I've been there and it is not a dangerous place at all, not unless you do something stupid. These UN "stats" mean nothing, and as far as it goes most places there are as safe as anywhere else in the world, BUT...personal security, for the most part is YOUR responsibility, as it throughout most of the world. But, what you have in a place like that is this WONDERFUL sense of freedom and independence. And I can promise you, for the average local living in there in a town or village, they are as safe as they would be anywhere in the world. Lots of factors contribute the homicide rate in a place like that. In Columbia, one factor is the tendency of young men to duel with each other, sometimes with a fatal outcome. Also, there is what amounts to a civil war in parts of the country with all sorts of foreign spooks there stirring the pot. Then you have the drug trade. You can go there and be as safe as you would be anywhere in the world. But, there are some simple things you must do and other things you MUST NOT do. This part is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY, not something provided, at great expense and with a resulting loss of personal freedom, by the state. I don't carry around a pistol, never have, ever. I do carry a knife, a fairly small one, and have my whole life, everywhere I go. I am good with it too, or used to be, anyway. <grin> We sleep here with the back double doors standing wide open year round, so the dog can come and go, but lock the front door, not out of fear of intrusion, but to keep someone from getting dogbit. We don't lock any of the windows and they are open most of the year as this is Florida and we don't air condition. Before this place, we lived in the middle of a 1000 acre north Georgia wilderness and I NEVER locked a door there. If Charlie Manson came and shot us all nobody could even hear the gunshots, the neighbors were so far away. I lived in Manhattan back in the early 1980's, back at the peak of the NY "crime wave". Nothing to worry about. Now go up into the South Bronx and stick your nose somewhere it didn't belong, and you could get killed in a hurry. Ditto the Boston "combat zone" back then. I have never in my whole life worried for my security for a single minute, and I have made a practice of running around in some rough places. I got "mugged" once when I lived in New Orleans. Three little dudes from the projects got me from behind and whacked me in the head with a metal shroud that fit on the bottom of an old fashioned refrigerator. I got my grips on the biggest one, who I figured was the leader and beat him to a pulp. <grin> Now this was on a bright and shiny Saturday morning and on one of the well policed main city streets as I was heading down to the diner for breakfast. I had, for months, after work and late at night sometimes, rambled around some of the rough little bars and clubs that you find in that part of town, places where you could get killed easy if you did the wrong thing. Just goes to show you never can tell. Anyway, you guys down there need to quit being such wimps about your personal security. Get a backbone and take this responsibility into your own hands, where it belongs. Slagle