Jonas Anderson

From Cyberlaw

The beginning...

OK, just got logged in. I wanted to report some interesting numbers that I have compiled researching third world diseases:

- Only 10% of the overall research and development money is directed at diseases that cause 90% of the global disease burden.

- 94.9% of US pharmaceutical profits (brand name) come from sales in the US, Japan, EU, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

- Of the 1393 new medicines that were developed between 1975 and 1999 only 13 targeted TB and other tropical diseases. These diseases make up 14% of the global disease burden. (It should also be noted that many medicines for non-tropical diseases are not available in tropical regions since they are not heat resistant.)

- The WHO estimates that $720-$900 million dollars that would be devoted to research and development are not spent due to profits lost to pharmaceutical copiers. That is not to say that pharmaceutical companies lose that much money (they lose much more, many billions) due to copying; but that is the amount that would have been redirected to research and development.

Not sure what to make of these numbers yet, but they are enlightening.