Sunday, April 18, 2004

Immolation Calls

HIV and AIDS are both rather fearsome diseases, which, for the most part, can be judiciously sidestepped.  Individuals who suffer from these life sapping ailments, even as short as ten years ago, may not have had much hope for enjoying future life.  That has changed dramatically in the past decade, as new medicines and drug regimes were developed by pharmacuetical companies.  Millions upon millions of dollars were spent by these companies in developing drugs which are effective in the fight against HIV and AIDS.  Should these companies now be required to give it away rather than profit from it?

The AHF, Southern California HIV Advocacy Coalition (SCHAC) thinks Abbott Labs should give it away as evidenced by this press release titled “AHF to Abbott Labs: “Getting Fat on AIDS!”

Nicholas Provenzo, at The Rule of Reason, looks at the above press release, and Abbott Labs’ response in a post titled “Antitrust News: When is one man’s need . . .”  From Provenzo’s post.

“Yet when critics damn corporations such as Abbott for “putting profits ahead of people,” they really damn the self-interest of people. For these crtics, life is a hospital, and man’s life mission is not the pursuit of his own happiness, but the alleviation of suffering of others. It would be refreshing to see, in response, the genius that creates things such as breakthrough medicines applied with the same intensity in defending the very motives that make such breakthroughs possible.”

Posted by John Venlet on 04/18 at 06:35 AM
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