Lessig

For the developing world, farm subsidies are slow-motion weapons of mass destruction. Yesterday's WTO agreement is the first multilateral deal in a decade that pledges reductions. If it holds, much could change -- but it could also mean new pressures for adherence to international IP laws.

The fact that Americans pay more for prescription drugs than do Canadians or most Europeans has been prominent in the news lately. Both Kerry and Bush now promise to do something to reduce the gap. Virtually absent from the public discussion of the issue has been an even more troubling aspect of the way in which prescription drugs are currently distributed: the inability of the residents of developing countries to obtain life-saving drugs at prices they can afford. This post provides a few details concerning the seriousness of that problem. The next post will outline – and solicit reactions to – a few ways in which the problem might be solved or at least mitigated.

The previous post provided a few facts suggesting the character and seriousness of the current situation involving access to life-saving medicines in developing countries. This post will sketch, just as briefly, some possible solutions to the crisis. Most of these ideas are not my own; they’ve been outlined elsewhere, often in quite detailed form, by other academics, activists, and politicians. Along with Talha Syed, I’m currently working on an article in which we try to evaluate all of the major pending proposals and suggest a few additional ones of our own. We’d be grateful for reactions to the menu of options set forth below as we hone our essay.

Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel laureate in economics, on TRIPS:

"Intellectual property is important, but the appropriate intellectual-property regime for a developing country is different from that for an advanced industrial country. The TRIP’s scheme failed to recognize this. In fact, intellectual property should never have been included in a trade agreement in the first place, at least partly because its regulation is demonstrably beyond the competency of trade negotiators."

(Thanks, Ren)