December 17, 2007

Speaking down to us children, the ineffable Jeff Sachs, august professor of health policy at Columbia University---and a prominent economist---now informs the world that Thailand, last seen stealing, oops, issuing compulsory licenses for, the patents for AIDS medicines, "can afford to pay a little more for patented medicine, although not as much as rich countries." After all, Sachs, the former director of the UN Millennium Project---please send me a note if anyone out there remembers what that was---said that "he is sympathetic towards patent protection, [a] system [that] actually had a lot of merit because it created an incentive for drug development."

Gee, thanks a lot, Jeffrey. The use of the past tense in that last sentence is interesting, but never mind. After throwing that bone to those of us intensely interested in preserving the flow of new and improved medicines over time, Sachs then informs us that "there was nothing wrong with the use of compulsory licensing of essential medicines." After all, said UN Secretary-Genneral Ban Ki-Moon last week, "[Thailand's] move on compulsory licensing... [is] progressive, ... a commendable effort in containing the spread of HIV/AIDS."

So there we have it: The Thais could afford to pay a little more, but, hey, stealing the drugs is OK anyway, because doing so is progressive and serves a worthy cause. Only an academic with tenure and a lust for continuing invitations to the Upper West Side cocktail parties could endorse something so silly, so destructive, and so transparent.

Posted by Benjamin Zycher at December 17, 2007 09:55 AM

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