The medication pictured at the left is Nexavar. It is made by Bayer, and is a promising new cancer drug (for late-stage liver and kidney cancer). The only problem with the drug is that it is very expensive. On the international market, a year's treatment with the drug costs about $69,000 (and in the United States it would cost about $96,000).This cost is not a problem for the rich, or for those with good health insurance. But for many people worldwide, the drug is simply too expensive -- costing more than they would make in a year (even here in the United States, where the median yearly income is just slightly above $40,000).
In India, the $69,000 cost is 41 times the country's annual per capita income. That puts it out of reach for all but the wealthy in that country. But India, unlike the United States, has patent laws that allow another company to produce the drug at a more reasonable price if the drug is not available at a price most can afford -- and that is what has happened with Bayer's Nexavar. Indian patent courts are allowing another company to make the drug, and provide it for a cost of only $177 (which should give you some idea of the outrageous profit Bayer has built into their drug pricing).
This has upset Bayer, and they have been trying to appeal the patent court's decision -- so far unsuccessfully. Bayer CEO Marijn Dekkers recently gave an interview to Bloomberg Businessweek, calling the Indian patent court decision "theft". Then he went further, and revealed his hard-hearted attitude toward his fellow humans. Dekkers said:
“We did not develop this medicine for Indians…we developed it for western patients who can afford it.”
I guess we should give him credit for his honesty. Like many other corporatists and right-wingers, he considers medicine and health care to just be products available for sale. And those products should only be available to those who can pay for them. For Dekkers (and other right-wingers) health care is not a right, and anyone who can't afford the inflated prices for it should just die. Although Dekkers targeted Indians in his statement, it is obvious that it would also apply to the millions in the United States who are without health insurance and too poor to purchase his product (thanks to his Republican buddies who refuse to expand Medicaid).
Most right-wingers aren't as honest as Dekkers. They also believe medicine and health care should only be provided to those who can afford to pay for it, but they hide that hideous attitude behind lies -- like no one goes without health care in the U.S., government cannot provide adequate health care, and we can't afford to provide health care for all its citizens. None of those aren't true, but they sound better than admitting you believe poor people should just die because they don't have the money to pay for expensive drugs and care.
Perhaps most amazing is that these right-wingers claim to be christians -- followers of Jesus, who commanded that the poor be provided for. But for them religion is just a cloak used to hide their real beliefs -- that their greed for money is more important than the lives of their fellow citizens (of both this country and the world). Dekkers is a vile person, but no more vile than the millions of other right-wingers willing to deny health care to others.
