The Issues of Exporting Generic Drugs

Pharmaceutical Companies are often considered "Public Enemy #1" by those who view themselves as advocates for corporate ethics.  They have often been accused of gross misconduct and violations of the trust that so many people put in them. When you pay for a drug manufactured by a brand name drug company, most of what you are paying for goes to supposed research and development rather than the actual manufacturing. This money allows drug companies to fund new research projects that will theoretically improve our health later. We put our trust in these companies when we pay for the brand name drug. Many critics accuse the industry of using this money for less honourable purposes, such as marketing. The way drugs are marketed is thought to increase prescription drug addiction and understate the adverse side effects of many of these drugs.




Cartoon from CartoonStock.com

  All these allegations can make the average consumer nervous. After all, our health lies in the hands of these profit driven corporations, but never fear, generic drug companies are here! Generic drug companies run their business by selling drugs at a significantly reduced price, allowing consumers to choose whether or not they want to contribute to "research and development". Generic drug companies sell the very same drug at a lower cost by waiting until the patent runs out on the pharmaceutical and then beginning the manufacturing process. Often drug plans will only cover the generic type of the drug, simply because it's more cost efficient.

The solution to our woes seems simple enough, support the generic drug companies! The only problem is is that they really don't come up with anything new. Universities often do testing and research on drugs, so you could say that we pay for this with our taxes. But the big drug companies really do make significant advancements in the field of medicine. So we have a choice to make. This choice is easy enough to make on a small scale, just put some balance in your shopping bag.





Anti-Retroviral Drugs

  

We encounter great controversy when we arrive at the issue of which drugs our country should be exporting to developing countries. The specific drug that is at the heart of this issue is Anti-Retroviral Drugs, or ARV drugs, used to treat HIV/AIDS. You can find out more about them here. The big drug companies are maintaining that exporting the generic forms of these drugs is a violation of their rights as patent holders. It also decreases the ability of the big companies to do any research at all. That's a fair argument to make, but this has repercussions beyond the cancellation of the CEO's vacation plans. It has become a humanitarian issue .

Countries being devastated by HIV/AIDS are in no position to pay for the original ARV drugs. If we were to start exporting generic drugs the countries would have a chance to supply their people with these drugs and allow them to live longer, more productive lives. The results could be so uplifting that many countries of Sub-Saharan Africa would need a lot less of our aid  and money in the future. The economies in these countries would experience a much needed boost. They would have more people ready to work and a smaller dependency load. The current trend is an increase in the number of those orphaned by AIDS. If that trend could be reversed there would be undeniable benefits for these countries.

So why aren’t we rushing to help? It’s because the pharmaceutical corporations are legally obligated to keep their focus on making a profit. And these companies simply cannot be ignored by the government, they are a significant influence on the economy of our country. If we don’t support the big companies they won’t take a hint and change their ways. They just won’t do research and development at all. We also have to face the fact that another surge in population could make the goods we consume so rapidly more expensive, and result in a decrease in our standard of living over here in the developed world.
Familiarize yourself with the prevalence of AIDS with the image below.




Map supplied by the UNAIDS Organization. The darker the colour the
higher the concentration of people with HIV/AIDS

 

In March 2011 Canada passed Bill C-393, making it easier to export these drugs in their generic form. Many people were thrilled because it means thousands of lives saved that would have otherwise been lost. Only as long as generic companies like Apotex follow through on their promises to actually export these drugs. We will have to wait and see what kind of repercussions this bill will have on our country and our world.