New York Times: Drug Companies Are Focusing on the Poor After Decades of Ignoring Them
“…Once demonized as immoral profiteers, many of the world’s biggest 20 pharmaceutical companies now boast about how they help poor countries and fight neglected diseases. They compete on the Access to Medicine Index, which scores their charitable efforts. Several of them even cooperate with the Indian generics companies they once dismissed as ‘pirates’ by sub-licensing patents so the generics makers can produce cheap drugs for Africa, Asia, and Latin America. But there is still opportunity for growth. … The Access to Medicine Foundation recently published a look back at what had changed since it was founded in 2005 by Wim Leereveld, a Dutch former information consultant to the industry…” (McNeil, 6/24).