Drug companies at it again



Yep, those wonderful pharmaceutical companies - you know the ones who make literally billions and force governments to avoid too much regulation or safety inspections - are at it again. Not satisfied with making MOnty Burns look like Mother Theresa over the patent controls on Aids drugs to the developing world they are now using contracts and patents to screw up attempts of local authorites in Asia and the W.H.O. to treat the frightening outbreak of flu contracted from poultyr which has been scaring most of us on the news this week. You'd think a drugs company would understand these outbreaks must be stamped out as swiftly as possible before new variants appear - they can mutate at a frightening rate, often faster than our own immune system or drug researchers can deal with. So catch it quickly before it mutates, a golden rule of fighting viruses and bacteria. Seems pretty simple and straightforward to understand, doesn't it? But as this article in New Scientist reveals, not everyone had an injection of the common sense virus.