This is not a new debate. In fact, there is much discussion about reducing the duration of patents or that the world turns to the use of generic drugs.
It occurred to me that the best way to illustrate the problem is with a fictional story, but one that is not too far from a probable reality.
Imagine that one day an aboriginal discovers a new plant in the forest, baptizes it as a chachakuma (to name it) and goes to his hut. The next day he makes an infusion with this herb, gives it to his son with dengue, and the disease disappears suddenly. The Aboriginal has just accidentally discovered AN EFFECTIVE CURE. That knowledge is transmitted to his son and this in turn to his descendants and so on, until said ancestral knowledge reaches our times. Very few know of the existence of this medicinal plant because nobody is interested in the least to put advertisements in the newspaper, or to carry out studies so that they appear in the magazine Science.
So far many will think ... it would be very good for everyone to know about this herb!
Edgar landivar
4 min read
