Pharmaceutical Profits Over People
In 1988, the World Health Organization celebrated its first World Aids Day. The aim of the day was twofold: to raise awareness of AIDS-related issues and to mourn those whose lives had already been cut short by the disease. Occurring each year on December 1st the campaign is additionally accompanied by a theme tying to global health. On December 1st, 2017, the World Health Organization sponsored the campaign My Health, My Rights.
With this year’s campaign, the World Health Organization aimed to support healthcare as a right for all people, in adherence to the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The covenant stated that it was the “right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health... to the prevention and treatment of ill health… and to be treated with dignity and respect.”
Bringing attention to the plight of healthcare is important in a world where for many, treatment for AIDS remains out of reach due to pharmaceutical companies charging exorbitant amounts of money for their drugs. AIDS has moved out of the mainstream for many Americans; the days of the AIDS crisis of the 80s and 90s are over. But often ignored populations in America, like African Americans in the South, and people with AIDS in the global south continue to suffer as their economic conditions preclude them from accessing expensive vital medication. According to the World Health Organization, pharmaceutical companies’ target consumer bases are in wealthy North American and European countries, despite the fact that a majority of those living with AIDS live in Africa and Asia.
What can be done to make AIDS medication more accessible to the economically disadvantaged? Governments could regulate the pharmaceutical industry and place price controls on lifesaving drugs.
Detractors of such market regulation say such regulation hurts innovation. Drug companies say that lowering their pricing policies will only kill drug development. However, according to the D. Light Institute for Monitoring Policy, pharmaceutical companies only contribute to about 12% of innovation in drug development--governmental research and public research make up the bulk of drug development.
In truth, the cost of a drug often has nothing to do with how much it cost a corporation to produce it--out of all major industries, pharmaceutical companies have the greatest average profit margin. The returns pharmaceutical companies get per pill show that the current state of the pharmaceutical industry values profits over human life. Generic companies, like Cipla in India sell AIDS medication cocktails for a mere $350 per year, versus the average name-brand Glaxosmithkline AIDS medication cocktail costing as much as $15,000 per year.
The issue of drug profiteering goes beyond the scope of medicines to treat AIDS. In 2015, CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Martin Shkreli, made headlines after raising the price of a life-saving drug, Daraprim, used in the treatment of toxoplasmosis, a disease affecting immunocompromised individuals. The price went from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill--and this was a legal move, albeit through exploitation of loopholes.
In America, virtual monopoly exists when companies exploit loopholes in the legal system currently regulating pharmaceutical companies. Market forces alone won’t limit these de-facto monopolies, we need more drastic changes like price controls and compulsory licensing in order to keep pharmaceutical companies from exploiting those in need of their drugs. Price gouging currently runs rampant in the pharmaceutical industry, and we must bring an end to this. Greater regulation of the pharmaceutical industry won’t stifle innovation, regulation will only protect patients who are currently suffering under inflated drug costs.
Works Cited
Chu, Ben. “If We Want to Avoid Another Martin Shkreli or an EpiPen Pricing Fiasco, This Is How We Need to Deal with Pharmaceuticals in Future.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 30 Aug. 2016, www.independent.co.uk/voices/martin-shkreli-epipen-big-pharma-avoid-pricing-fiasco-pharmaceutical-companies-capitalism-a7216606.html.
Duberman, Martin. Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS. The New Press, 2014
Fire in the Blood. Directed by Dylan Mohan Gray, Sparkwater India, 2013.
Mugyenyi, Peter. Genocide by Denial: How Profiteering from HIV/AIDS Killed Millions. Fountain, 2008.
“UNAIDS Launches 2017 World AIDS Day Campaign-My Health, My Right.” UNAIDS, 6 Nov. 2017, www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/pressreleaseandstatementarchive/2017/november/20171106_myhealth-myright.
Villarosa, Linda. "America’s Hidden H.I.V. Epidemic." The New York Times, 06 June 2017,
nyti.ms/2rOqWIz. Accessed 30 June 2017
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