Academic Resources: Research Tools
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Databases: Films Database
Patents and Patients
- Topics: India battles HIV/AIDS using generic drugs.
- Brief Summary: Dr. Yusuf Hamied, Managing Director of the Indian drug company Cipla, thinks the Indian government should put the country "on a war footing" to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic that threatens his country. As evidence, he cites the 3500 new HIV/AIDS cases that are reported almost daily in India, as well as statistics suggesting that this year the total number of infected Indians may reach 35 million.
- But there is another battle being fought, this one over how to deal with the pandemic in developing countries like India: a battle over the patents held on the anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) known to prolong the lives - and minimize the suffering - of HIV sufferers the world over. Cipla produces generic copies of ARVs whose patents officially belong to pharmaceutical giants like Bristol Myers Squibb and GlaxoSmithKline.
- But without a proper health infrastructure to monitor patients and ensure the drugs are properly administered, India faces the risk of a drug-resistant HIV explosion, a new epidemic that will lead to even more deaths and misery.
- Directed by Joost de Haas
- Produced by Television Trust for the Environment
- Series Editor: Jenny Richards
- Date of Release: US Release Date: 2003, Copyright Date: 2002
- Length: 23 minutes
- Where to get it: Bullfrog Films, or Inter Library Loan
