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...past nine years, the drug company Novartis has been selling Coartem, one of the most effective antimalarials on the market, to public-health officials in the developing world at a loss totaling more than $253 million - not counting the millions spent on R&D. That's added up, the firm reports, to more than 550,000 lives saved. In late January, the company unveiled the first pediatric dose of Coartem - less bitter and easier to swallow than the adult version - which is expected to help in the battle against a disease that kills more than 700,000 children under...
Novartis' foray into fighting malaria is emblematic of the ongoing debate in health care about where good public relations gives way to real corporate responsibility. True, the $42 billion firm has actively sought applause on the world stage. On the other hand, Coartem is a drug that has virtually no commercial value in the high-margin markets of the global North. "Novartis could be making a lot more money making hypertension or diabetes medications that the people in the U.S. and Europe would buy," says Awa Coll-Seck, executive director of Roll Back Malaria, a global partnership founded with...
...part, Novartis now spends more than $1 billion a year on ensuring better access to medicines. The firm has built two research labs dedicated to preventing and curing neglected diseases such as dengue fever and tuberculosis and has pledged to eradicate leprosy. (Read "A Vaccine That Could Help Wipe Out Malaria...
...source of growth and employment. A December report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that service companies are burdened by higher taxes and energy costs than manufacturers, while excessive regulation creates barriers for start-ups. Hwang Doo Jin, an architect who operates his own small firm in Seoul, complains of endless, stressful hours untangling the confusing rules that govern his business. "It is easier to produce a masterpiece than run a viable business over time," Hwang says...
...tigers really want to thrive in the future, the answer might lie in rejecting another legacy of Park Chung Hee: the idea that governments alone can successfully engineer high economic performance. Jim Walker, an economist at independent research firm Asianomics in Hong Kong, argues that politicians still intervene too much in their economies instead of allowing market forces to work. "What governments need to do is start trusting their own people rather than hoping the West is going to get it right all of the time," Walker says. For the tigers to keep roaring, they may need to find their...