As opposed to the US,
In the US, people need not resort to smuggling. Rather, they consume drugs intended for non-human animals.
https://mashable.com/2017/08/06/fish-antibiotics-america-hea...
In China, Desperate Patients Smuggle Drugs or Make Their Own
81–90 of 102 posts
Re: In China, Desperate Patients Smuggle Drugs or Make Their Own
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think we'd have 99% of these novel clinical compounds if it weren't for patents. As for approvals, I don't know why we have each country doing its own approvals, instead of international groups that individuals can choose whether they want to trust or not. Are Europeans sufficiently different than Chinese, Indians, Australians, Canadians, Germans or Americans to warrant independent safety approvals? If they'r…
Well, considering the US avoided the thalidomide tragedy because they decided approval in Europe was t good enough, you’re unlikely to see a scenario where it gets approved simply because someone else approved it.
The thalidomide tragedy didn't happen in France too, because of a new law adding stricter controls on drugs.
Re: In China, Desperate Patients Smuggle Drugs or Make Their Own
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is just one example. There is also fentanyl, knock off prescription medication, and I've even gotten fake sex toys from China. The point is that stealing, lying, and poisoning Americans is part of Chinese culture. And what's worse is it appears that their state department is egging them on. So sure, there are Americans that do greedy things and have externalities. The problem is, it's China's stated national pol…
> The point is that stealing, lying, and poisoning Americans is part of Chinese culture. That's a pretty repulsive sentiment, and it's rich too coming from an American like yourself. Not surprising that it garners plenty of upvotes on a cesspool like "Hacker" News.
> Not surprising that it garners plenty of upvotes on a cesspool like "Hacker" News.
Since it's both flagged (from user flags) and dead (from user downvotes), I don't think that comment is warranted.
Re: In China, Desperate Patients Smuggle Drugs or Make Their Own
#84Sadly, the Chinese government has less incentive to let the poor survive. It’s a cold, heartless form of population control. There are government officials who have come to the conclusion that delaying or not providing drugs for things like cancer will eventually help keep the country stable financially. In a country the size of China, they simply can’t afford to let everyone live to 85.
Denying medical treatment was used as a form of torture in the Mao years: Liu Shaoqi was a Chinese revolutionary, politician, and theorist. He was Chairman of the NPC ... Originally groomed as Mao's successor, Liu antagonized him in the early 1960s before the .... He was denied medicine for his diabetes, by then a long-term illness, and for pneumonia, which he developed after his arrest.
Its also used now. That's why many dissidents die from lack of medical care in Prison.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/10/world/asia/liu-xiaobo-med...
Re: In China, Desperate Patients Smuggle Drugs or Make Their Own
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd heard part of the problem was that Nestlé lied to mothers to make them think they needed it, gave them enough for free that their own breast-milk dried up making them dependent on formula to feed their child at which point many were stuck with an expense they couldn't actually afford leading to things like diluting the formula. Certainly not as bad as outright poisoning formula, but a shitty thing in general to p…
But this is nowhere near the same thing as the Chinese baby milk melamine scandal, as well as more localized fake baby milk powder scandals. In fact, people go to HK to buy so much baby milk powder that they had prevent export. We are comparing a non defective product that couldn’t be used effectively by a certain populations to outright fraud.
I can see a product designer make the case that if millions are dying, then the product is defective in some way. The rules are different in two different places, but I can see how someone thinks these two cases are similar, both are about corporate greed, and the victims are just statistics. Is it murder if there is something wrong with the product, and you don't pull it? Many people out there believe that it is:
https://www.odwyerpr.com/story/public/5379/2015-09-18/gm-pay...
Re: In China, Desperate Patients Smuggle Drugs or Make Their Own
#86[deleted]
Re: In China, Desperate Patients Smuggle Drugs or Make Their Own
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
The movie mentioned in the report triggered a lot of discussions online. One question that troubled many Chinese was: Why Chinese need to smuggle cheap drugs instead of producing their own equivalent. The difference is obviously the IP cost of drugs owned by the big pharma because Chinese companies have the capability to produce the drugs. Then why China can not violate those IPs while India can? A popular explanatio…
Bhopal incident. It's easily one of the worth industrial accidents in the world, and the then PM whisked Union Carbide's head out of India, instead of prosecuting his firm for the cleanup. That hasn't stopped the Americans from lobbying though. China routinely violates tech IPs by Americans' own reporting; I'm surprised as to why they'd not do the same for drugs.
Here's very interesting difference of 2 cases about the statement "China violated many US IPs":
1.US IPs are violated in China. 2.Chinese government deliberately let Chinese companies violate US IPs.
They are not the same meaning. But media mislead Western audience to believe the second version by some tricky narrative and hide partial truth. The real situation is more complicated
Re: In China, Desperate Patients Smuggle Drugs or Make Their Own
#88Sadly, the Chinese government has less incentive to let the poor survive. It’s a cold, heartless form of population control. There are government officials who have come to the conclusion that delaying or not providing drugs for things like cancer will eventually help keep the country stable financially. In a country the size of China, they simply can’t afford to let everyone live to 85.
That's a really damning statement of intent with no evidence whatsoever.
Healthcare is hard, Americans especially should get that.
Re: In China, Desperate Patients Smuggle Drugs or Make Their Own
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
They proved they have no conscience with the Chinese baby formula scandal[1]: putting melamine in baby formula to save a little money, knowing that doing so would be poisoning infant children. "A spokesman said the scale of the problem proved it was 'clearly not an isolated accident, [but] a large-scale intentional activity to deceive consumers for simple, basic, short-term profits.'" [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wik…
How is this racist white supremcist drivel allows to stay on HN? We are 1 human race, there is no difference between skin color. To call out an entire people as cruel and heartless is just so wrong!
There is a good chunk of the userbase that doesn't care to think about what the statement you're responding to sounds like, or that the spin that you read here might be part of a concerted effort to make a whole country look bad.
It's worthwhile to bring attention to that and it's good that you're doing so, but try to put it in a format that uses examples and sound reasoning. That way people might be more inclined to listen to it, as opposed to a fairly emotional argument that is also vaguely hostile to boot.
Re: In China, Desperate Patients Smuggle Drugs or Make Their Own
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bhopal incident. It's easily one of the worth industrial accidents in the world, and the then PM whisked Union Carbide's head out of India, instead of prosecuting his firm for the cleanup. That hasn't stopped the Americans from lobbying though. China routinely violates tech IPs by Americans' own reporting; I'm surprised as to why they'd not do the same for drugs.
Here's very interesting difference of 2 cases about the statement "China violated many US IPs": 1.US IPs are violated in China. 2.Chinese government deliberately let Chinese companies violate US IPs. They are not the same meaning. But media mislead Western audience to believe the second version by some tricky narrative and hide partial truth. The real situation is more complicated
Nothing happens in big business in China without a stamp of approval from Beijing. The reverse is true in the US, where Washington politicians need their report card signed by business interests, but it amounts to the same thing: there is no meaningful reason to distinguish between business elites and political elites in either system.