Triple A: "AIDS and Accusation" and Abbott Laboratories

After finally reading "Deus Caritas Est" and former president Jean Bertrand Aristide's "In the Parish of the Poor: Writings From Haiti," I've begun the only book by Dr. Paul Farmer I haven't yet read, "AIDS and Accusation."

My blood still boiling over Abbott Laboratories continued callousness, extreme even with their deplorable track record, extreme even for a corporation, whose business needs admittedly do lend themselves to dispassion. This week, Abbott offered Thailand a "compromise": Aluvia (one of the drugs it was planning to pull) for $1000 per patient per year--fixed price, no lower, and Thailand couldn't continue its compulsory license. As an alternative to the deal, an Indian generic company, with the support of the Clinton Foundation, could make the drug for $695, with the near certainty of a price drop as more generic companies produce the ARV. Thai ministry of health looks like it won't take the deal...good decision, clearly.

In his 2005 preface to this book, originally published in 1992, Dr. Farmer addresses exactly this issue:
"Even if we agree that AIDS care is a right, there are significant challenges. We need to understand that as long as these medications remain commodities on the open market, they will be available only to those who can afford them. Regardless of how low costs go, there will always be those who cannot pay. For those interested in health as a human right, selling ARVS will always pose problems."

And a little later on...:
"...confused debates nonetheless continue to waste precious time. We should brace ourselves for the next great wave of debate, which will undoubtedly focus on what the modern world owes to the destitute sick. If AIDS care becomes a right rather than a commodity, some people believe we will open a Pandora's box. Others, including me, believe that we have no more excuses for ignoring the growing inequality that has left hundreds of millions of people without any hope of surviving preventable and treatable illnesses."

We need to put pressure on the Miles Whites [Abbott CEO] of the world. We need to put pressure on the world. We need to put pressure on ourselves in the world. To not continue to ignore inequality.