Refreshingly Honest Corporate Greed

I'm not going to bore you with a rehash of my ongoing angst over drug IP. Instead I want to focus on a simple statement from the Chief Executive Officer of Bayer, who said in comparing Indian compulsory licensing laws to "theft" (go to the bottom of page 2 if you just want the quote):

We did not develop this medicine for Indians. We developed it for western patients who can afford it.

I'll just let that quote sit there for a while so you can digest it.

Keep in mind we're not talking about a tech toy, a luxury good, or even something moderately useful like a school text. We're talking about medicine. About things that keep people healthy and alive against illnesses like AIDS or cancer. Diseases don't discriminate, but apparently drug companies do and they're no longer ashamed to say so.

Dear Dr. Dekkers. I sincerely hope that neither you nor anyone you care for is ever afflicted with a life-threatening illness. I particularly hope that your privilege and fortune keep you safe from the misery of having a treatable disease but having the treatment withheld because your socioeconomic status doesn't match corporate profit margin forecasts. I thank you for helping me see which side of this discussion I should be advocating for, and I hope that somehow before you die you allow the light of human compassion to illuminate that miserable shriveled hole where you have apparently locked up your soul.

(h/t to Glyn Moody on techdirt, where I saw this first.)