Medical access is something that the developed world takes for granted. Call a 3-digit number and a fully equipped ambulance will be at your location in minutes to care for your every need, but in underdeveloped worlds, medical care is so out of reach for most that most remain untreated. Those suffer as they endure pain from a disease they don’t understand, and spread it to surrounding family and friends, spreading epidemics in already dying countries. The US needs to fight for parallel importing in underdeveloped countries for pharmaceuticals and spend more on international agreements for prosperity, not just for the people who need our help, but for our future as well.
In underdeveloped countries where “pharmaceutical companies don’t allow their products to be produced in the developing world due to the lack of profit", they leave "millions ‘without access to medicines’. And with no lifesaving medications ‘nurses give painkillers to sick patients as a ‘treat-all drug,’ So instead of treating patients, health caretakers just load them up on painkillers, which are highly addictive, to make the patient comfortable for their impending death. This shows a system that lacks ethics, especially on the part of the pharmaceutical companies’. Medicine is supposed to be a humanitarian business, the actual purpose of their business is to improve and save people's lives, but instead they leave the people who can’t afford their products to the wolves” (Post #2). Humanity needs to work on saving itself, and if one human won’t help another then we are doomed because no one else is going to come to our rescue.
In countries where the average income is 1 US dollar a day, it’s clear that outside influence is the only solution. The easiest trade agreement that can be made is parallel importing which “doesn’t affect patent laws but instead lets “genuine products [be] brought into a country without the authorization of the copyright, patent, or trademark owner”. This would mean that the original developer with the patent would be the only one making the drug, but people could buy it from countries and then sell it again in another country. This would allow for more jobs in those areas, easier access and the original patent holder still receives the original profit”. This would work significantly well considering pharmaceutical companies such as “‘Glaxo Kline Smith may charge significantly lower prices in Thailand or India than in South Africa for the same drug. Traders may try to acquire the drugs in India or Thailand and then resell them in South Africa for a lower price then is available in the market ‘“ (Chokshi, Post #4).
But benefiting less fortunate countries is not just for them, but for our international relations. In the Commitment to Development Index “out of the 27 world powers, the US is ranked 24th in aid”. The leading countries in the Index, “Denmark, ‘gives 0.75 percent of its national income to aid efforts, according to the report, one of the few countries to meet the 0.7 percent target the United Nations first adopted in 1970’. After 47 years of having this goal in front of them, the US has not staggered much, in fact, our aid will now decrease since ‘U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning Washington from helping pay women in developing countries for birth control, abortion and family planning education’ and in a blaze of humanitarian glory, ‘The Netherlands quickly announced the creation of an international fund to help offset the withdrawal of U.S. funding’”. Instead of funding relief efforts, the US is popular in “sell[ing] arms to poor and undemocratic countries, [and, in turn] it doesn't sign up for a lot of international agreements relative to its peers”, by fueling rogue militants, the US is losing trust from other developed countries, we need to gain that peace back to achieve peace and prosperity, and giving more of our money to those who need it is the best way to prove to our allies that we are willing to be generous with our aid, and they will follow suit. “Ian Mitchell, an economic and developmental policies expert for the Center of Global Development in Europe, says it best, ‘with prosperity comes peace, comes collaboration, comes the mutual exchange of ideas and a better economic growth for everyone. So if we can develop the entire world, it will reflect back on us and our own security and prosperity’. By sharing our prosperity, we not only create peace, global relationships that aid in trade and technological advances as the world’s most advanced countries work together to solve problems, but it reflects back on us positively, showing that by sharing our wealth, we are wealthy, generous and confident in the change we can accomplish, and will finally be a world power that enacts change” (Post #5).
