What is the biggest obstacle to firms being more generous?
Apart from being hungry for profit, they worry that often drugs they give free – or at a discount – leak from where they are intended to be used and find their way into markets where prices are high. Only if recipient governments agree to enforce the patents system (and ensure that drugs intended for poor people are used only by them) can Big Pharma do deals to work round it in some cases. This isn’t just about the Third World: Big Pharma strikes low-cost deals with governments all over the world.
