Metchosin, thanks for the links. Lots of good information at the Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders site.

I may be a pain in the butt, but I sometimes manage to learn something because of it.

From what I gather, the problem is with patents on new drugs. The standard drugs for pandemic diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis are less effective because of drug resistance.

The website said that the US was trying to extend the 20 patent. Governments may also grant licenses to produce the drugs to other countries and ignore "intellectual property" rights in favor of public health needs. It appears the US is trying to not only block changes that would make this easier, but is actually trying to make licensing more difficult.

The MSF/DWB website isn't specific about any proposed changes, but my guess is that's because they believe the general public won't read gazillion page documents about it. What they have is a summary, and it has helped me understand what the whole thing's about.

While I understand drug companies need the incentive of profit in order to want to develop drugs, I don't like it nor do I think it's right. It's the way capitalism works. Personally, I feel that having a motive (profit) that differs from the reason for doing something (health), if it works at all, we're lucky.