Chemical / Pharmaceutical...

Isn't it ironic that on one hand, the world is awash in chemicals incidentally released into the environment -- pesticides, flame retardents from your bed sheets, estrogens from birth control pills affecting marine life... and on the other hand, people are dying a more rapid death from lack of life-saving pharmaceuticals?
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Although the work of MSF and other groups that started in Seattle has helped to dramatically decrease the prices of AIDS and other essential medicines, the global system of drug research and development remains fundamentally flawed. Between 1975 and 2004, 1,556 new chemical entities were marketed globally. Only 20 of these – a mere 1.3 per cent – were for tropical diseases and tuberculosis, which account for 12 percent of the total disease burden. This 1 percent ratio has been steady over the last three decades.
Doctors Without Borders