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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   9421 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 10, 2025

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Uh, what does India stealing medical patents have to do with anything? Are their knockoffs less effective? Pardon my ignorance, but it would seem that a stolen antibiotic is, in terms of effects, identical to a purchased one.

While the factories likely have purity issues, the main issue is the antibiotics are culturally ineffective. That is, people routinely do not complete their regimens, which is a primary driver of antibiotic resistance. There are subpopulations in America where this is also true, but it is believed to be a widespread problem in India.

It is not clear that finishing the course prevents resistance.

I was going to post this, and it seems correct for antibiotics in general, but it may not be true for TB, due to the nature of the illness and the fact that it takes megadosing on antibiotics for months to make a dent in the infection.

No, opposite problem. They are effective, they aren't utilized properly. Prescribed wrong, treatment regimens not followed, both kinds of failure cause TB to gain further drug resistance.

Not OP, but if we were giving them antibiotics we might at least hope to suggest they use them responsibly. If they just steal them instead, they can hand them out like candy.

(Again, not OP, and I have no stake in this issue, just suggesting a possible connection).

The point he's making is "if Indians misuse antibiotics then they shouldn't be allowed to have the ones we're trying to keep in reserve; since they'd respond to a refusal to licence by seizing the patents, blow up the physical factories".

Sure, but, India is not asking permission. They get ahold of a new American made drug and cheaply copy it. Once you already know the molecule, making copies is easy. It is discovering and testing potential drugs that is enormously expensive. Europe and India leave that Herculean task to America.

This is not responsive to @jake's suggestion. He was suggesting that the West respond to Indian misuse (e.g. feeding to animals, or rampant failure to finish courses) of in-reserve pharmaceuticals (i.e. those we're trying to keep microbes from becoming resistant to) by not only revoking their patent licences and embargoing India, but literally blowing up Indian generic factories producing these drugs with airstrikes.

I reiterate that this is Jake's suggestion, and not mine; while his suggestion avoids your objection, there are others it does not avoid, such as "acts of war against a nuclear triad power are a bad idea".

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