Indonesia sells avian flu virus?
Again, Indonesia did something worthy of nothing. Instead of giving away samples of the Avian flu virus to scientists, they may sell it to the highest bidder, The New York Times reported.
It’s really not make sense. I think it should be given free to non-profit organizations, particularly the WHO.
Bird flu has infected 81 people in Indonesia, killing 63, since the first human case was identified here in July 2005. Globally, there have been 165 fatalities from 271 human infections.
Indonesia, which has had more human cases of avian flu than any other country, has stopped sending samples of the virus to the World Health Organization, apparently because it is negotiating a contract to sell the samples to an American vaccine company, a W.H.O. official said yesterday. …
“[Indonesia’s] concern,” Dr. Heymann said, :is that their strains have been used by several manufacturers to produce vaccines, and that Indonesia should get some compensation. From their point of view, it’s understandable.”
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[…] It’s a good news. Instead of negotiating a contract to sell the Avian flu virus samples to an American vaccine company, an Indonesian engineer creates a new technology to combat against bird flu and awarded an international grant from Qualcomm, a leading developer and innovator of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and other advanced wireless technologies. […]
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It did make sense. Indonesia learn from the past. The current system works against poor countries.
Poor countries provide virus sample freely to the WHO, then the WHO passed them on to drug manufacturers, who then made the vaccine and drugs and patent them. The poor countries were not allowed to made the vaccine because of restricted patent laws. Instead they should buy from those western countries with very high expensive price.
This was the case with the smallpox pandemic back then. That’s enough.
This unfair system should have come to an end.
The WHO should find a more fair system for all.
As an ndonesian I support the move.
It’s not about money at all. It’s about providing vaccine to its own population before helping out others.
The deal with Baxter will secure Indonesia to make their own vaccine for it’s own population. But if WHO give the bird flu virus freely to any vaccine manufacturers, who will then patent them, Indonesia will not be able to do that. Like what Indonesia and other poor countries had expetrienced in the past.
Why must a poor country give a virus sample freely that will result in an unaffordable and unavailable vaccine and drugs for them?
This does not make sense.