LEADING THE NEWS: “Abbott’s Concession to Thailand On Drug Price Signals Power Shift: AIDS-Treatment Discount After Generics Spat Reflects Clout of Developing Market,” by Nicholas Zamiska and James Hookway, Wall Street Journal, 23 April 2007, p. A3. ARTICLE: “Thai Showdown Spotlights Threat to Drug Patents: Abbott Protests Move To Buy Copycat Pills, But It Yields on Price,” by James Hookway and Nicholas Zamiska, Wall Street Journal, 24 April 2007, p. A1.

One of my favorite stories from PNM was how the whole anthrax scare, coming on the heels of 9/11, put Old Core states in the weird position of having to explain their hypocrisy on drug prices connected to huge global health burdens. Since then it’s been a knockdown drag-out globally between rising New Core states and their companies versus the Old Core’s Big Pharma and their lobbying power (which is immense). Great story here on how little and increasingly New Core Thailand is working Abbott over on this subject. Abbott and Big Pharma suffer these slights and pushback because the Old Core’s ability to sustain their huge profits is waning, while the New Core’s is growing. But guess what? The New Core recognizes its purchasing power, and they want a better deal. And quite frankly, suffering as so many Americans do under the high price of medicine in this country, I don’t blame them one bit. In fact, I cheer them on. For that reason and so many more, I just laugh when critics identify my vision as vaguely or even openly imperialistic. It’s like they don’t have a f--king clue about how this world works, much less how it’s so dramatically changing with the phenomenon we call globalization.