Drugs are expensive, and life is cheap.

This is from a very intelligent article from The Guardian, which analysing the contradictions between the profit-hunger of the big pharmaceutical companies and the need of the poor (and also the not so poor countries.)
The point aorund which it is revolving is, of course birdflu and the responses of the drug industry and some other players. Interestingly enough The Guardian is not too pessimistic: it has seen a glimpse of hope in the way Roche, the Swiss phamra giant have responded to the striking deficit in the supply of Tamiflu. "something significant is happening. Roche's change of heart, in the face of world pressure, has a lesson beyond bird flu. There has been some tacit acknowledgment that great potential power over life and death should not reside in a single boardroom."
A good read.