During the 1980’s AIDS epidemic only one drug was approved for use, AZT. Given the hysteria surrounding AIDS and the fact that no other pharmaceutical company had a drug approved, the makers of AZT sold their product at the insanely high price of $10,000 knowing that patients would either pay or die. At the time only 35% of AIDS victims were insured causing the drug to be inaccessible.
Rather than drastically improve public health and curb a national epidemic, the producers chose to make profit while people were dying and incredibly high rates.
In recent years, producers of HIV/AIDS medication have followed suit and risked lives of patients for monetary gain. In 2018, the company Gilead was sued for delaying development to market off of their incredibly lucrative monopoly of the drug. Allowing for health care providers and the pharmaceutical industry to profit at the cost of lives and livelihoods of the American people is incredibly unethical and unjust.
2 comments:
The choice for profit over public health is a tragic but very real facet of healthcare today. The HIV epidemic was traumatic for everybody living at the time, and inaccessibility of treatment only made it worse. I have a serious allergy and without receiving a proper dose of epinephrine, I could die from an allergic reaction. I'm lucky enough to have insurance to pay for the medicine, but an EpiPen can cost upwards of $100, making it inaccessible for many people who need it.
The AIDS/HIV epidemic has long been plaguing our society, which is extraordinarily sad. The more appalling fact, though, is that the care that is needed to keep one's quality of life as much as possible while being diagnosed with AIDS is being withheld in favor of the higher economic class in society.
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