Fire in the Blood - Corporate Greed playing with millions of Lives

Note: All information in this article is derived from watching the documentary "Fire in the Blood" on Zoom TV.

Sunday afternoons can be quite difficult to go through, for the sheer lack of things to do, even after getting up at 2:00 pm. So as always, I turned to the usual resort, the Television today. While channel surfing, I came across something related to HIV -AIDS being aired on Zoom - India's equivalent of ET. The surprise value made me stay on initially, but soon, as the documentary progressed, all I felt was sheer horror at the apathy of the industry which at one point of time,I aspired to be a part of. I had no idea what the documentary was called, how much of it had already gone by, as there were no ad - breaks. It was only when it ended, I came to know that it is called "Fire in the Blood", listed on IMDB for a 2012 release (?????). To those of you reading the article, I can suggest that you either continue reading, or check out their website - http://www.fireintheblood.com/.

For those of us who have been subject to classes on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Patents, the concept has been pitched as one which was introduced to protect the rights of tribal, indigenous populations, poor communities, and inventors in general, over their resources and creations. We were also given vague ideas about how, evil, corrupt multinational corporations used these patent laws to infringe on the rights of those very communities - case being in point the Basmati rice, turmeric etc. However, watching this documentary, you'd come to know that the gigantic scale of the greed of the most profitable business on earth - that of "saving lives" - the giant multinational pharmaceutical companies.

The basic crux of the documentary is the fact that how these multinational pharma companies arm-twisted the western governments, International bodies like the WHO, UNAIDS etc, to manipulated patent related legislation and trade agreements to prevent access to cheap, generic drugs, especially the Anti RetroVirals or ARVs to those countries which could not afford them - Africa, South America and certain pockets of Asia. More than 10 million people have died of AIDs and HIV, who could have in fact, been saved very easily, to lead longer, productive lives. Another startling fact, which made me proud of being an Indian, was that it was Cipla, an Indian company, headed by Yusuf Hamied, which has been at the forefront of providing these cheap, generic drugs to poorer African and other nations, and also providing the technical know-how on manufacturing them since the 70's. I have found a new idol in him, and I wonder why, in a country of hero - worshipers (cricket, Bollywood) such eminent personalities and their contributions not highlighted?? Or was it my own ignorance?

First, the basic facts - 90% of the pharma companies revenues come from just 10 -20 odd developed countries, with the United States of America accounting for 50% by itself. The entire continent of Africa accounts for just 1% - in other words, a market these companies can afford to ignore. of the top 500 fortune companies, the top 10 pharma companies (GSK, Pfizer, J & J etc) are more profitable than the other 490 companies combined. That gives a fair idea of the enormity of the money involved in this business.

The documentary features many people including an ex-CEO or something from Pfizer, a correspondent of the NY times who was instrumental in blowing the lid off this scam of gigantic proportions through his articles, an NGO worker from South Africa, doctors from India, Mr. Yusuf Hamied from Cipla himslef, an official from UNAIDS, Bill Clinton and many others, who reveal the hard - hitting truths behind this fiasco.

The cost of ARV therapy in the USA, and other countries, was more than $ 15000 per year in 2001. It still is so, in the USA at least. These costs, were unachievable for most people in any developing country, leave alone Africa. The giant pharma companies were just focused on the USA and other developed countries - the 90% of the market, which could afford to pay for them. As a result, in 2001 there were only 8000 people in the entire continent of Africa who could get these treatments. The others were diagnosed, if lucky, by hospitals, and then told to go home and wait to die. Somewhere down the line, Cipla, an Indian company manufacturing generic drugs, decided to provide ARV therapy drugs to the world at $800 per year ( as opposed to the nearly $800 per month prevalent then), at a global convention on access to cheap drugs, attended by heads of Governments, and the Pharma companies. Everyone was shaken, but not stirred. No one took up the offer. Ultimately, those fighting for the cause of access to cheap drugs for the poor world over did contact Mr. Hamied, and news spread fast and wide that it was possible to provide longer, fulfilling, productive, NORMAL lives to people in Africa, S. America and Asia too. He further agreed to cut production and other costs from the price, bringing it down to nearly $ 350, a dollar a day!!! This shook the very foundations of the pharma countries, which played all the dirty tricks in their books to keep the availability of such generic drugs at bay - from using patent laws, to launching mass advertising campaigns against "cheap, counterfeit drugs" from India.

Still, persistent efforts by NGOs, and individuals like Dr. Peter Mugyenyi from Uganda - who defied his country's patent laws to ship in cheap ARV drugs from Cipla, and facing arrest in the process, ultimately led to the inflow of generic drugs into Africa. The Governments ultimately relented, and now more than 6 million people in Africa, a number even higher than that of the USA, were availing of the ARV therapy, and leading, better, healthier lives. But the pharma companies' fear from the beginning, that once the American consumer learns that someone in Africa is getting the same drugs at $150 pa, for which they paid $15000 a year, they would want the same and their would be a backlash (which, never happened till now) made them turn a blind eye to social responsibility and ethics.

Till now they were manipulating the Western Governments and lobbying to keep generic drugs out of picture. Now they turned to the WTO (World Trade Organization), and at the Geneva Convention where TRIPS was adopted, it all fell apart. India too, along with other governments were signatory to an agreement which made it impossible to manufacture and market cheaper, generic drugs. The future generation of anti-AIDS and HIV drugs would be under these laws, protected by patents and laws, and the poorest of poor would again be denied the right to a healthy, productive life.

This is the basic gist of the documentary, though there is much more. But seeing the miraculous power of these drugs, I was shocked. They showed people who were born with HIV / AIDS, or acquired it at some point, and were nearly on the verge of death, in a day or two.... 11 year olds who looked like a 5 year old's skeleton, a man from Manipur who went underground at his home, isolated for three years after his diagnosis. All these lives were miraculously saved, the girl is now 16, healthy and working, the man became a body builder, was the silver medalist in Mr. India body building competition and went on to qualify for the Asian championships and is a celebrity of sorts. As the girl said "its the same for me, having a cure or having these medicines. I have an incurable disease, but I am taking these medicines, and I am alive."

I got into Bioinformatics / research with the naive notion of it being a gateway to the pharma industry, which I later realized with experience, was not true. But I still wanted to get into the drug development and discovery industry. Watching this documentary, I wonder where are the ethics, where are the morals, where is the greater motive of doing good for the society? As the ex-top notch guy from Pfizer said, its simple, the drug companies are there to make money, not to save the third world. The world surely could do with a few more Yusuf Hamieds.