Introduction
Heralded as the most deadly disease in human history, the presence of AIDS in Africa is explosive, representing 64.5% of the world's infected population and 77.4% of deaths (equating to 2.4 million individuals). An epicenter for infectious activity, Sub-Saharan Africa generates 65.3% of the 4.9 million new cases developed each year. Marginalized by poverty, poor diet and lack of private insurance, only a minute proportion of the 25.8 million people infected gain access to anti-retroviral drug therapy subsidized by private funding, corporate and non-governmental organizations.
With current individual treatment averaging $15,000 per year, human advocacy groups argue that there are two epidemics ? a physiological one for the wealthy and a financial one for the poor. While pharmaceutical companies profit from billions of dollars in revenue, their ethical intentions are acutely questioned by governments, NGOs and consumers igniting controversy for solutions to this global concern. At the cynosure of this debate lies Africa, whose non-capitalistic economy, prominent population and poverty status epitomizes the conflict of morality versus corporate profitability.
Patents and Property Rights - Pharmaceutical Response
In assessing the controversy over protecting idea ownership versus humanitarian obligation, proponents for corporate responsibility cite the longitudinal effects of AIDS as a shared global problem with no socioeconomic boundaries. However for pharmaceutical firms, the onus for philanthropy and its limitations represents a dichotomy of ethics versus property rights, where the interplay of investment costs and revenue generation are challenged.
Associated with greater foreign investment and trade, pharmaceutical paten ...