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HIV/AIDS Care Among Blacks v. Multinational Pharmaceutical Corporations

Summary Most developing countries are unable to pay the high priced HIV/AIDS medications created by multinational pharmaceutical corporations, but these developing countries can afford to pay the much cheaper generic HIV/AIDS medications created by generic pharmaceuticals. Multinational pharmaceutical corporations argue that their HIV/AIDS medications are intellectual property and that other corporations cannot make, use, or sell them without their approval. The multinational pharmaceutical corporations position stirs up many issues within the health care and intellectual property field. Mainly because multinational pharmaceutical corporations feel they should be able to set their own prices on their HIV/AIDS medication, without any competition, in order to “provide incentives for the research and development of new drugs.” Basically, multinational pharmaceutical corporations want their HIV/AIDS medications to remain under intellectual property rights so that it can ensure that they can profit from their HIV/AIDS medication, regardless if most of the people infected with HIV or AIDS cannot afford their medications.

HIV/AIDS epidemic In order to understand why HIV/AIDS medications must be governed under public domain policy, one must know the effects of HIV/AIDS on a worldwide scale, and the different effects HIV/AIDS has on a developed country compared to the effects HIV/AIDS has on a developing country. HIV/AIDS has become a worldwide crisis. HIV/AIDS is currently attacking Blacks (especially Black men who have sex with men) in developed and developing countries at astonishing rates. According to World Health Organization (WHO) approximately 34 million people were living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, at the end of 2010, and since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in 1981, over 30 million people have died from AIDS worldwide. Over 60 million people worldwide have been infected with HIV/AIDS since 1981; clearly HIV/AIDS is a global issue. The HIV/AIDS issue becomes even more devastating when one finds out that approximately ONLY 5.2 million people out of the 30 million people estimated to have HIV/AIDS are actually receiving HIV/AIDS treatment. The huge discrepancy between the people who are infected with HIV/AIDS and the people who are actually receiving HIV/AIDS treatment is mainly due to the fact that over fifty percent of the people infected with HIV/AIDS cannot afford the medications developed by the multinational pharmaceutical organizations. The critical analysis of HIV/AIDS in developed countries vs. HIV/AIDS in developing countries is also needed in order to understand why HIV/AIDS medication must be governed by public domain policy.

The United States is one of few countries considered a developed country, and the United States is also where most multinational pharmaceuticals organizations that create innovative HIVAIDS medications reside. But even with the Unites States being a developed country, with innovative HIV/AIDS medications at their fingertips, HIV/AIDS is still a prevalent problem within the United States. An estimated 1.1 million people in the United States are currently infected with HIV/AIDS and approximately 50,000 people are newly infected with HIV each year.

These HIV/AIDS statistics are alarming to say the least, but the HIV/AIDS problem within the United States becomes more frightening considering that ones ethnicity and income level, drastically increases or drastically decreases ones risk of being infected with HIV/AID. In 2008 African Americans only represented 12% of the United States population, but shockingly African Americans represented 47% of the newly infected people with HIV in 2009, also, “among black/African American men living with HIV in 2008, just over half were infected through male-to-male sexual contact.”  In comparison to Whites, who represented 65% of the United States population in 2008, and only represented 27% of the newly infected people with HIV in 2009. The major reason for this discrepancy is the median income level difference between African Americans and Whites. In 2008 the median income level for African Americans was $34,218, while Whites median income level was $55,530. Income level plays a vital role on peoples risk of being infected with HIV/AIDS and income levels also plays a vital role on peoples ability to pay for HIV/AIDS care. A low-income level is also why developing countries are having a major issue with containing the spread of HIV and AIDS.

Solution Stripping HIV/AIDS medication from intellectual property rights is the only way in which Black men in all developed and developing countries will be able to afford innovative HIV/AIDS medication. There are three ways to strip HIV/AIDS medication from intellectual property rights. First, by obtaining a compulsory license, this allows “license companies or individuals other than the patent owner to use the rights of the patent — to make, use, sell or import a product under patent — without the permission of the patent owner.’  Second, by allowing parallel importing “This is where a product sold by the patent owner more cheaply in one country is imported into another without the patent holder’s permission.”   The third way is by placing HIV/AIDS medication in the public domain, the public domain “consist of works that are either ineligible for copyright protection or with expired copyrights. No permission whatsoever is needed to copy or use public domain works.”  These three methods of stripping HIV/AIDS from intellectual property basically decrease the profits of multinational pharmaceutical corporations from HIV/AIDS medication, while simultaneously making HIV/AIDS medication affordable to everyone worldwide. What should be the number one priority regarding HIV/AIDS medication, the HIV/AIDS medication developers profit, or worldwide access to these medications for people infected with HIV or AIDS? Given that the whole world is fighting a HIV/AIDS epidemic, HIV/AIDS medications should not be governed under intellectual property rights, but instead under public domain policy; this way HIV/AIDS care becomes affordable for everyone in developed and developing countries.

Sources and Related Articles

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