>More important, I think, is that Brazil has a strong moral case and
>ACT-UP doesn't. Brazil is a poor country with lots of sick people
>who have no chance of finding anyone to pay first-world prices for
>drugs. The U.S. AIDS-afflicted population lives in the richest
>country in the world.
>
>There is a strong argument that charging first-world prices for AIDS
>drugs in Brazil does nothing other than make more people die faster.
>There is an equally strong argument that if we want to see faster
>medical progress we shouldn't be in the business of trying to curb
>the profits pharmaceutical companies make in the first world...
How much fundamental research do pharma companies pay out of their own pockets? And how much to they exploit the basic research done at the expense of governments and universities? They're far more interested in tweaking a few atoms to come up with Prozac Mark IV than they are in doing anything very bold. The moral case for gouging the sick and the old, even in a rich country (where the sick and the old aren't likely to be very rich) is pretty weak.
ACT-UP is heroic, and has been for years.
Doug