• by Ignacio Ramonet
• Thursday, September 17, 2009
• Inter Press Service

The conclusions of the final European Commission report on competition abuses in the pharmaceutical industry, released on July 8, are shocking and have wide-ranging ramifications. And yet the media have largely failed to cover it, writes Ignacio Ramonet, editor of Le Monde Diplomatique in Spanish.

In this article, Ramonet writes that according to the report, competition in the pharmaceutical sector is simply not working, and the major pharmaceutical companies resort to any kind of underhanded tactic to prevent more effective medicines from reaching the market and especially to disqualify the production of generic versions, which are far less expensive. The consequence is delays in consumer access to generics that means major financial costs not only to patients but also to government social assistance programmes, and consequently to all tax payers.

It is a crucial battle, and it will be momentous if it is won by the pharmaceutical mafia, which would thus have doubled its power in Europe and the rest of the world to fight the release of generic drugs and dampen hopes for a more solidary and less expensive health care system

(*) Ignacio Ramonet is the editor of Le Monde Diplomatique in Spanish.

//NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN CANADA, CZECH REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE UNITED KINGDOM//

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

Where next?

Advertisement