Saturday, January 26, 2013

Big Pharma Defending Capitalism in Africa While the People Suffer


"Fire in the Blood" is a documentary that was shown at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. The film looks at the way large pharmaceutical companies helped support the death of millions of people by blocking the delivery of necessary AIDS drugs to tens of millions of people mainly in Africa, but largely across the "developing" world. The reason? Profit of course. The affordable generic AIDS drugs aren't how some of the biggest corps in big pharama like Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline, make the enormous profits they do. Rather it's their "designer" brands meant for the "first" world.

This documentary critically examines this process. Essentially big pharama, mostly in the U.S., has literally refused to let the countries that needs the drugs the most to get them. At the core of the issue is the beloved friend of world injustice, the WTO, who supports the block of the cheaper, generic drugs that wouls not only save peoples lives, but offer them a higher standard of living, due to a trade deal called the "TRIPS Agreement". You can check out more info about the film and subject matter as well at watch the trailer for the film over at http://www.fireintheblood.com/


Democracy Now! recently hosted a discussion with the film director, Dylan Mohan Gray, as well as Ugandan AIDS doctor Peter Mugyenyi. Peter was actually arrested for trying to import the generic drugs?!?!?!? Watch the video above or visit:

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/23/fire_in_the_blood_millions_die

to get better educated on the subject, big pharam and the WTO as a whole.

See www.solarliving.org for full course schedule