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The US entertainment industry decides how copyright and trademark law should be drafted and enforced with the ultimate goal of enriching not society but that self-same entertainment industry. They protect their interests at the expense, often, of the public domain.
The pharmacological industry has been scouring indigenous medicine and plant life across the developing world for decades looking for clumps of molecules to patent. Not to enrich society, but to enrich stock-holders.
If a developing nation decides that it's in their own best interests to abrogate foreign patents to save lives are we really supposed to feel sympathy for the drug companies who would rather see thousands suffer and die rather than voluntarily negotiate a more favourable deal?
Cynically, I do wonder if the attention on this particular drug has anything to do with an ageing middle class, including law makers and politicians, being more likely to develop cancers.
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