Brazil's going to break the patent on an AIDS drug unless the manufacturer slashes prices. The US spent its first 100 years as a "pirate nation," using every other country's patents, trademarks and copyrights without compensation as part of its efforts to bootstrap itself into an industrial power. Why the hell should Brazil be sending its GDP off to the US now, while it is a developing nation in desperate need of AIDS drugs?
Brazil's Ministry of Health has demanded that Abbott Laboratories cut the price of its AIDS drug Kaletra by 42 percent, threatening to break the company's patent and produce generic versions of the drug if it does not comply.
The Abbott Park, Illinois-based company has 10 days from the time it received Friday's ruling to agree to reduce Kaletra's price to $0.68 per pill from $1.17. If Brazil follows through on its threat, the move would mark the first time the country has adopted compulsory licensing.
(via Wired News)
