Wealth before health? Why intellectual property laws are facing a counterattack | Joseph Stiglitz

The current regime is unsustainable. Emerging economies are right to lead the pushback against patenting standardsWhen the South African government attempted to amend its laws in 1997 to avail itself of affordable generic medicines for the treatment of HIV/Aids, the full legal might of the global pharmaceutical industry bore down on the country, delaying implementation and extracting a high human cost. South Africa eventually won its case, but the government learned its lesson: it did not try ag