U.S, WTO threaten Brazil medicine

The U.S. has filed a complaint with the WTO on behalf of giant drug companies, claiming that Brazil is illegally creating and distributing AIDS drugs. The complaint says that Brazil should not be allowed to create these drugs without paying the U.S. drug companies a licensing fee. The hitch: Brazil can create the drugs at a very low cost and after distributing the drugs, deaths from AIDS in Brazil dropped from approximately 11,000 to 4,136. The drugs are widely distributed to those with AIDS through government and religious medical programs.

Now the U.S. drug companies threaten this progress because they say they are not getting their cut. In 1997, Brazil passed a law to honor international patents. The U.S. drug companies claim they patented the drugs the Brazilians are using prior to 1997. Does Brazil have to honor patents created before 1997? Does a drug company have the right to take life-saving medicine out of the hands of doctors and nurses? It seems the decision is in the hands of the World Trade Organization for dispute resolution...

Brazil has been distributing these life-saving drugs for free to the Brazilian people.