[Ip-health] Switzerland to Thailand, drop dead

[James Love]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/switzerland-to-thailand-_b_93447.html

The Huffington Post
Switzerland to Thailand, drop dead

March 26, 2008

On February 25, 2008, the Swiss government wrote a letter (copy here) to
the Thai government, objecting to the use of compulsory licenses to
obtain affordable cancer drugs in Thailand. The Swiss actions are
closely coordinated with actions (link) of the European Commission and
the United States government. It is particularly appalling to us that
Switzerland, one of the highest income countries in the world, would
pressure Thailand on this issue., after having promised (link), in 2001,
that developing countries could use compulsory licenses to promote
access to all.

Here are some comparisons of the two countries.

Indicator	Thailand	Switzerland
Gross National Income (GNI)	$193.7 billion	$425.9 billion
Population	67.7 million	7.4 million
GNI per capita annually	$2,990	$57,230
GNI per capita daily	$8.19	$156.79
Life expectancy	70.9 years	81 years


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James Love, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
http://www.keionline.org, mailto:james.love@keionline.org
voice +1.202.332.2670, fax +1.202.332.2673, US mobile +1.202.361.3040, Geneva mobile +41.76.413.6584

When everyone thinks the same, no one thinks.  Bill Walton remix of Walter Lippmann