We are mostly optimistic as the current confusion sorts itself out. It has credibility on this issue, and credibility in the larger world as well - although it could do better in explaining this issue to the public. It might become the cornerstone of a forum where the different interests come together to discover what common ground could be found. As strange as it seems, we cannot see any economic or other reason why it would be impossible. Under the current system, now being imposed around the world by the WTO treaty, governments must give pharmaceutical companies monopolies over life and death treatments, so that the companies can charge high prices for patented drugs in order to pay for research, and reward investment.
Society demands nothing from the industry beyond quality control, and general obedience to the law.
So companies are free to use their money to corrupt medical research, medical publishing, medical practice, patient advocacy, governments at all levels, and international institutions. In the last year this system has changed little, but the public has become much more aware of it, through in-depth reports in leading national newspapers and medical journals. Pharmaceutical patents are different from most patents not only because the product can be essential to life. They are also different because human beings have risked their health or their life in clinical trials to get these products tested. There is a precedent in the traditional role of the physician, who until recently was also well rewarded, but with the understanding that the practice of medicine was not only a business, but involved more than just making of a buck.