This month, two critical legal battles between multinational pharmaceutical companies and the Indian government are taking center stage in an ongoing struggle over India’s medicines patent law. The potential consequences could be dire for governments and people in developing countries that rely on affordable, quality generic medicines produced in India. For example, more than 80% […]
Tag: drugs
Jeremy Sare: Drug consumption offence
The debate between prohibitionists and drug reformers is often one between morality and pragmatism. Comments made last week by Bernard Hogan-Howe, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, about drug testing employees to deter use, put him firmly in the moral camp. He argued that employers have the right to impose conditions on employees’ lifestyles. Hogan-Howe was […]
Deborah Cohen: Amy Winehouse’s battle with addiction
When celebrity ill-health and death play out across the media, the chattering classes inevitably all have their say. With Jade Goody attention turned to cervical cancer (and created mass hysteria about the age screening should begin); and Kylie’s breast cancer, which she survived, raised its profile. With Amy Winehouse, who died this weekend, the attention […]
Jeremy Sare on drug sentencing
Most drug users are not addicted. Most suppliers of drugs are not dealers. These central truths about patterns of drug use in Britain are incompatible with the policies adopted by those in power who believe ever more muscular enforcement will somehow steer young people away from taking them. In drugs policy, there remains an unparalleled […]
Joe Collier: A stab at future UK Drug Pricing Policy
We are now into the fifth month of the negotiations to reform the secretive and perverse (and essentially discredited) UK Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS), and we can safely assume that the discussions will be hotting up as the new terms must be in place by the beginning of September. […]