HIV AIDS and Pharmaceutical Corporations

After Blood Diamond Movie, an interesting movie that shows about the bad condition of Sierra Leone, and its natural resources (Diamond), once again I want to review an issues that is ever depicted and taken from a good movie. This special movie is I have seen at least one year ago, and once again describe about the bad experience of Africa continent.
Perhaps all of you ever seen "the Constant Gardener Movie". If I am not wrong, this movie is played by talented actor and actress, Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weizsh. The essential of this story is tells about the the role of Tessa (Rachel Weish) as an activist in Africa who running up against a drug corporation exercising its power to both ignore the easily treated diseases of the third world and use African population for unofficial research and development.
Somethings new and important that I can achieve from this movie is a lesson about the existence of power and politics of pharmaceutical corporation for the poor African and the role of those corporation in using them as a trial for its drugs development.

Well,AIDS and HIV has reached epidemic proportions in many developing countries. It is serious enough where in some nations has had a large impact on mortality rates and the economy. Some 80% of deaths for 2007 were in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region that also has over two-thirds of adult HIV cases and some 90% of all children living with HIV. Breaking that down further.

In the developed countries, we can see many adverts by large transnational pharmaceutical companies such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Pfizer and many others. We see a lot of emphasis on health alerts or sections on the news. However, as is becoming increasingly apparentand concerningis how the emphasis on the new drugs and cures being developed fit a class distinction, where the research is on problems that affect the wealthier people who can afford the cures.

Profit from Suffering

Pharmaeutical corporations using a controversial methods to operate in many developing countries, indeed they often to do sell products in developing countries that are withdrawn in the West; use their influence to try to prevent national drug policies; sell their products by persuasive and misleading advertising and promotion; cause the poor to divert money away from essential items, such as foodstuffs, to paying for expensive, patented medicines, thereby adding to problems of malnutrition.

Many of pharmaceutical corporation also often used a methods by testing drugs to the poor and human without permission. Like in this movie, many Africans become a trial of those drugs. In Africa also tobe one of the world’s biggest drug companies experimented on children without their parents’ knowledge or consent. Another example are experienced by many of Indian society. Many pharmaceutical corporation test drugs on Indian's poor by by using India’s cheaper, but highly skilled workforce to conduct drugs trials there, rather than in industrialized countries, thus saving significantly on the costs.

Furthermore, many drugs are being developed for markets in industrialized countries. Yet, using incentives such as $100 for participation (even though patients may not be fully aware of all the issues, which poses other ethical issues) in effect, poor people in other countries are being used for testing drugs on, while the potential benefits would be for people elsewhere. Wired News cited an assitant professor of medical history and bioethics, Srirupa Prasad, who said, “Third World lives are worth much less than the European lives. That is what colonialism was all about.

Testing Drugs in Many of Poor Society

Thats all at a glance my knowledge about pharmaceutical corporations in developing countries. Globalizaton not only has bring the spread of multi national corporation to operate in many areas over the world, but also has bring the deeper effect by commit a human rights abusive.The threat of health security especially AIDS not only enlarged by social economic condition and lack of handle, but also avarice and crime many of mutinational corporation in broaden their wings