Comments on: Merck halts shipments of key cancer drug to Greece

By: dioptase

dioptase — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 21:26:00 +0000

Is that your offer to personally pay for medicine for people in Greece? Or does your argument only apply to other people’s money? I sincerely hope it’s the first, but fear it is the second.

By: wysinwyg

wysinwyg — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 17:24:00 +0000

I think the argument here is more like:
“OK, the ‘making money’ game is fun and all but real human beings are dying here. Maybe there’s more important things than money?”

I mean, however pissed off you are about bad governance in Greece do you think the appropriate punishment is to let them die of cancer? (The people with cancer are not necessarily the ones responsible for the bad governance, incidentally.)

By: CocoBongo

CocoBongo — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 08:41:00 +0000

After 3 years have passed with no visible progress in how we in Greece handle our budget and the Greek state ows 6+ billion euros to companies inside Greece I see no reason why any company would want to do business for free with Greece. Not one public sector employee has been laid off (not even the ones that are caught stealing), unemployment is 25%+ , taxation is rising having the same income taxed two and three times (even past years’ income) and yet it’s Merck’s fault that they don’t want to end up with large shipments unpaid if Greece goes bankrupt?

By: retepslluerb

retepslluerb — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 05:51:00 +0000

Well, no outside force is preventing them from collecting taxes. But for some strange reasons, they’d rather not.

By: B E Pratt

B E Pratt — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 03:14:00 +0000

I think in German it can be simply, “Sheiss!”
[Ficht nicht mit dem rocket-mencsh!]

By: anansi133

anansi133 — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 22:24:00 +0000

The weak are meat. The strong do eat.

By: SomeGuyNamedMark

SomeGuyNamedMark — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 21:55:00 +0000

What I meant by “irrational” was then even if it forced a company out of business they’d have to provide free medicine under such a law. Not exactly a smart thing to do. If it was well within their means and they were just holding back for profit reasons then it might be more reasonable.

By: Jake0748

Jake0748 — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 04:18:00 +0000

Thanks, Mitt!

By: Marja Erwin

Marja Erwin — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 00:06:00 +0000

So is irrational manslaughter any better than rational manslaughter?

By: rocketpjs

rocketpjs — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 23:24:00 +0000

A generation or three of war movies have taught me that heartless, psychopathic utterings are most chilling in German (or failing that, a German or British accent).

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 22:06:00 +0000

Clearly, low-income Greeks do not need cancer drugs. What they need is austerity. (I do not know how to say this in German.)

By: Ender Wiggin

Ender Wiggin — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 21:47:00 +0000

they could probably get for pennies as a generic from india. if they couldn’t just work it as humanitarian aid. That would probably violate an intellectual property treaty or trade agreement somewhere though. then we’d have to invade.

By: Diogenes

Diogenes — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 20:35:00 +0000

Some throats beg to be slit.

By: irsol

irsol — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 19:13:00 +0000

Pfizer (biggest U.S. pharmaceutical in terms of revenues) isn’t sending Medrol (cortisone) to Greece at the moment. That is only one of around *700* drugs that are unavailable in Greece as we speak. They’re doing it “unofficially”. Merck just decided to make it official.

As for buying it at pharmacies… Yeah… Sure. Even if you do have 30K to spend (who does, in Greece these days?), the pharmacist who’s going to have to order it and pay for it *in advance* probably doesn’t have 30K to spend –for every patient that might order it.

Yes. Pharmacies are forced to pay the pharma companies in advance. Have been doing so for almost 2 years. And then wait to be reimbursed by patients’ insurance funds, which are also of course going bankrupt, for various reasons, but also because they had owned government bonds… Pharmacists are owed millions of euros. And then are asked to pay taxes that are going up every day on money they have never received.

Talking about this makes me sick with rage…
My husband’s grandmother needs Heparin as we speak, and it is nowhere to be found. It is simply unavailable. Another one of those ‘unofficially’ not being sent to Greece.

I agree with lafave, btw… They should declare the patent null and void immediately and put the drug put into production.

By: EH

EH — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 18:27:00 +0000

Shoe on the other foot, is it a job for society to provide services to for-profit corporations, like patents and tax breaks?

By: SomeGuyNamedMark

SomeGuyNamedMark — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 18:12:00 +0000

Part of me wants to charge Merck executives with manslaughter. Yes, I know it is irrational.

By: SomeGuyNamedMark

SomeGuyNamedMark — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 18:10:00 +0000

I think Brazil did something similar.

By: lafave

lafave — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 17:35:00 +0000

withdraw from the euro and declare that they’ll pay all their debts in drachmas and issue bonds. actually collect taxes from the rich for once.

By: pKp

pKp — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 17:30:00 +0000

Where would they find the money to finance it ?

By: acerplatanoides

acerplatanoides — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 17:28:00 +0000

Yes, the US confiscated their brand during WWI.

By: Charles Céleste Hutchins

Charles Céleste Hutchins — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 17:08:00 +0000

I’m sure no US-based pharma company would EVER do anything like that.

By: acerplatanoides

acerplatanoides — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 16:51:00 +0000

It also isn’t the job of a for-profit corporation to provide social commentary, but this is Merck doing that.

They should have their patent stripped and their Board of Directors jailed for allowing this.

By: acerplatanoides

acerplatanoides — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 16:51:00 +0000

watch us

By: jasonmarks

jasonmarks — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 16:22:00 +0000

Important clarification: the German company Merck KGaA are the soul-less corporate greedmongers behind this story, not the U.S. pharma company Merck.

By: Sagodjur

Sagodjur — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 16:11:00 +0000

Because then wealthy people won’t have yet another exploitable market for their profiteering and we cannot infringe on their natural right to be total Christ-what-assholes.

By: preluded

preluded — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 16:07:00 +0000

The end of the article states it’s still available for purchase in pharmacies, because, you know, it’s only $30K for a two month course!

By: rocketpjs

rocketpjs — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 15:41:00 +0000

Makes sense, to maybe Ayn Rand or some other amoral psychopath.

If we start to include things like ‘basic human decency’ in our economic decisions, all is lost. (I am being ironic).

That said, it isn’t necessarily the job of a for-profit corporation to provide a social service. It is our job, as humans, to provide those services for our fellow humans. We can do that in thousands of possible ways, but the most efficient and effective so far has been universal health care in some countries – why not all countries?

By: lafave

lafave — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 15:39:00 +0000

Greece should immediately declare Merck’s drug patents null and void in Greece and begin manufacture themselves.