From: harelb@math.cornell.edu
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Date: 08 Jan 93 20:09 PST
Subject: Indian Firm Produces Cheaper AZT
Nf-ID: #N:9301090406.AA19142@tba.msi.corne:-488355446:000:3336
Nf-From: math.cornell.edu!harelb    Jan  8 20:09:00 1993


From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (Harel Barzilai)
Subject: Indian Firm Produces Cheaper AZT

...Forwarding from misc.activism.progressive...

** Article: 10275 of misc.activism.** progressive
** Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
** From: ww%nyxfer%igc.apc.org (Workers World Service)
** Subject: Indian Firm Produces Cheaper AZT
** Message-ID: <1992Dec25.081656.7475@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
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** Organization: The NY Transfer News Service
** Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
** Date: Fri, 25 Dec 1992 08:16:56 GMT

Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit

Indian company produces cheaper AZT

By Shishir Thadani

An Indian drug company recently announced it could produce the
AIDS-treatment drug AZT and market it at one-quarter the cost
charged to patients in the U.S. But Burroughs-Wellcome, which
produces and sells AZT in the U.S., has moved to prevent
pharmacies around the world from purchasing the Indian drug.

Burroughs-Wellcome has threatened the Indian company with a
patent-violation lawsuit. But Indian patent laws are different
from those in the U.S. Drugs cannot be patented in India; only
the chemical processes used to manufacture drugs can be patented.

The Indian company has an original manufacturing process. In
fact, a company spokesperson said the firm could compete in the
U.S. market and thus begin higher-volume production.

The drug is already being produced and many Third World countries
have expressed interest in purchasing it. Some are considering
setting up local manufacturing plants with the Indian company's
assistance.

As a goodwill gesture, the Indian government has sent subsidized
shipments of the drug to other Third World countries. Public
health officials in Brazil, Thailand and some East African
countries are following this development with great interest.

But the U.S. government and its imperialist allies in Europe and
Japan are bringing tremendous pressure on the Indian government
to change its more progressive patent laws to mirror those in the
U.S.

Washington's tight patent laws in particular retard technological
development and competition and hurt consumers. This is
especially true in the health-care field, and in the case of AIDS
and other life-threatening illnesses this issue becomes a matter
of life and death.

If the U.S. government succeeds in its effort to stymie Indian
production of the drug, it would drastically increase the death
rate because very few Indians are able to purchase drugs at the
monopoly prices charged by the imperialist drug cartels.

Health care costs in the U.S. are astronomical, in large part
because of the patent laws and trade restrictions against
importing drugs from Third World countries. Shouldn't people with
AIDS in the U.S. also be permitted to benefit from technological
developments taking place in India or any other Third World
country?

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if
source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; email: ww%nyxfer@igc.apc.org; "workers"
on PeaceNet; on Internet: "workers@mcimail.com".)


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