September 05, 2012
Newspapers are not supposed to do fluff pieces, that is the job of PR departments. Apparently the NYT does not know this, hence the fluff piece on former President Bill Clinton and the various charitable organizations that he has established since leaving the presidency. A serious news piece would have included some discussion of the TRIPS agreement that he inserted into the Uruguay Round of the WTO.
This agreement, which was inserted at the urging of Pfizer and other drug companies, required developing countries to adopt U.S. style patent and copyright protections. The resulting monopolies raise the price of prescription drugs and other protected products by several thousand percent above the free market price. It is a virtual certainty that this agreement will do far more to harm the health of people in Africa, by raising the price that the continent must pay for its drugs, than anything Bill Clinton’s charities can do to aid Africans.
Comments