Life Death and Property Rights

Case Discussion

Life, Death and property Rights

Why do most African patients not receive adequate treatments for HIV and AIDS?

There are several reasons for the lack of treatment in Africa, a worse infrastructure as well as corruption or the lack of information about the disease. One of the main reasons for the inadequate treatments of HIV and AIDS is the weak infrastructure that Africa has. The health care system in many African countries is extremely small. Doctors are very scarce and therefore patient will only get a basic care at most. The fact that distribution systems for the drugs as well as storage facilities are not given, makes the treatment even harder. Another problem is the corruption in the African countries. Although there are a lot of funds for treatments and for the development of a better health care system, there is little to no money spent in an effective way. A study of the World Bank showed that with 100 dollars spent by the government on drugs only 12 dollars worth of medicine reached the patient (Bartlett& Spar, 2003). Due to the fact that treatment for AIDS and HIV is extremely expensive, ranking from ten thousand dollars to fifteen thousand dollars per year for one patient (Bartlett& Spar, 2003), it is impossible for an average African patient to pay the drugs. In order to use these drugs in a proper way the advice and help of a doctor is needed, which is not available due to the weak health care system. Moreover there is a social stigma so that governments are turning there heads away and try to ignore the problem, which makes it even harder to help the patients. The reason for the infection rates within these countries is the lack of information about the disease. Only few people really know how dangerous the virus is and how it transfers.

Why is it so important to protect property rights for pharmaceuticals?

The Pharmacy industry is very dependent on its patents. Since the development of a single drugs can take years and costs millions and millions of dollars, it is necessary for those companies to be sure that they will have a given time period were they can earn the money spent on research and development back. Without patents and property rights there would be no incentive anymore to search for new treatments and drugs due to the fact that competitors would just copy the product and make a profit without spending money on R&D. The existence of patents and property rights is the major driving force behind the willingness to search for new solutions to known problems. This is also the main reason why patents and property rights are important for the Pharmacy industry. The post war period showed that countries like U.S.A., with strong property rights, hosted many companies which made inventions that were major breakthroughs in the treatment of diseases. Whereas in countries with weak property rights no real research was done and therefore no new drugs were invented.

Why are pharmaceutical companies not willing to reduce prices in low income countries given that marginal costs are relatively low?

There are two main lines of argumentation against a lower price for drugs. First pharmaceutical companies argue that due to the weak infrastructure in Africa there is no real possibility to use the drugs in a proper way. If a patient enjoys a drug treatment against AIDS or HIV he has to follow very detailed rules and besides that he is very opposed to other diseases. Due to the weak infrastructure and the low standard of living patients are easily infected with others diseases making a further treatment impossible and giving space for the development of new resistant strains of the HIV virus. The second line of argumentation is more of an economical view. Since property rights are the major driving force for new inventions, as already mentioned in question two, pharmaceutical companies would simple stop researching for new treatments against