MacroScan (Printable Version) - Bird Flu: The Panic and the Profits

Have you noticed how all the news media have devoted so much time, and so much panic-mongering, to bird flu recently? Of course this is a growing and potentially terrifying threat to health in countries across the world, especially in Asia, but the media coverage has been far in excess of anything warranted by the actual incidence of this disease or even any immediate potential threat.

Interestingly, the western media has been even more breathless about this than media in Asia. In India, the recent interest and concern of BBC and CNN news channels, for example, has been quite marked. But this is still far less than the concern and even obsession with the threat posed by bird flu which is evident in these same channels in the versions they peddle for western consumption, or in American channels such as Fox News and the major US TV networks.

In all of these versions, as in popular magazines, the effect (if not the intent) has been the same: to create panic among ordinary people and make them rush for protective cover. And this has been much more marked in the US, where the citizens are anyway nowadays encouraged to see themselves as more threatened and more in need of protection, than any other people on earth.

So the newspapers, radio and TV channels in the US blare: “Don't panic! Stay calm! And make sure you have enough of the flu vaccines that will protect you and your family from bird flu!” What flu vaccine? you will ask - and you well might, since Indian and other Asian manufacturers have yet to receive compulsory licenses that would enable them to produce this vaccine without a license from the international patent holders.

It turns out that the vaccine in question – currently the hottest property in the international pharmaceutical market – is Tamiflu, which is patented by the US company Gilead Sciences, a California-based biotech company which is so far jealously guarded its patent and has not granted any licenses to others. While Tamiflu is manufactured and marketed under license by the Swiss multinational drug company Roche, Gilead receives a royalty of 10 per cent of sales from Roche.

The current fears of a pandemic of Asian bird flu, and the consequent rush to procure this vaccine Tamiflu, has sent the share price of Gilead soaring from $35 a share less than six months ago to as much as $47 at the moment. And it is likely to grow even more now that President Bush has announced plans to spend vast quantities to buy and stockpile huge quantities of this vaccine as a protective measure.

Already in July this year, the Pentagon had purchased $58 million worth of this vaccine for the use of US troops across the world. The US Congress, encouraged by George Bush, is considering a multi-billion dollar purchase. And the alarm created by the media has mobilised so many private buyers that there is now a huge shortage of the vaccine in the market and supplies are being black-marketed.

For those who enjoy conspiracy theories, or like to hear further evidence of crony capitalism in operation, here is an example to rival the now-stale stories about US Vice-President Dick Cheney and the arms company Halliburton that got so many contracts in Iraq. It turns out that one of the largest shareholders in Gilead Sciences is US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. He will clearly gain to the tune of millions of dollars.

A recent article in Fortune magazine (31 October 2005) reveals that Rumsfeld served as Gilead Research's chairman from 1997 until he joined the Bush administration in 2001, and that he still holds a Gilead stake valued at anywhere between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial disclosures.

Rumsfeld is one of the wealthiest members of the Bush cabinet, which is already famous for its billionaires. But he is not the only beneficiary in high places. Apparently the list of Gilead shareholders reads like a Who's Who of the powerful in the US administration, ensuring that Rumsfeld will not be the only one around the White House whose pockets will feel heavier after this.

The joke is that Tamiflu is seen to be currently the most effective chemical preventive treatment, but it is neither foolproof nor even particularly effective, since it is only known to work against one particular strain of a virus that is known to mutate very rapidly and combine with other strains. So in the event of a real outbreak, even if not of pandemic proportions, its efficacy is likely to limited at best and maybe even non-existent. This has not prevented it from being broadcast all over the US media as the only way for ordinary people to save themselves from this dread disease.

We live in a world that gets curiouser and curiouser, where apocalyptic visions periodically dominate and take over popular imaginations with great ferocity, until they are replaced by another apocalyptic vision, whereupon the first one is all but forgotten. This may have been a feature of human society all along, but now the spread of media makes everything more international and more instant. So we lurch from actual catastrophes to imagined terrors.

But the really curious thing is not that we do so, but that somehow, out of each such scare or actual incident, somewhere some company's profits shoot up and some very rich people get even richer. It is hard not to feel that we are all being taken for many different rides on these counts, even as actual existence becomes much more fragile and problematic for so many people.



Themes > Current Issues	8.11.2005


Bird Flu: The Panic and the Profits

Jayati Ghosh

Have you noticed how all the news media have devoted so much time, and so much panic-mongering, to bird flu recently? Of course this is a growing and potentially terrifying threat to health in countries across the world, especially in Asia, but the media coverage has been far in excess of anything warranted by the actual incidence of this disease or even any immediate potential threat. Interestingly, the western media has been even more breathless about this than media in Asia. In India, the recent interest and concern of BBC and CNN news channels, for example, has been quite marked. But this is still far less than the concern and even obsession with the threat posed by bird flu which is evident in these same channels in the versions they peddle for western consumption, or in American channels such as Fox News and the major US TV networks. In all of these versions, as in popular magazines, the effect (if not the intent) has been the same: to create panic among ordinary people and make them rush for protective cover. And this has been much more marked in the US, where the citizens are anyway nowadays encouraged to see themselves as more threatened and more in need of protection, than any other people on earth. So the newspapers, radio and TV channels in the US blare: “Don't panic! Stay calm! And make sure you have enough of the flu vaccines that will protect you and your family from bird flu!” What flu vaccine? you will ask - and you well might, since Indian and other Asian manufacturers have yet to receive compulsory licenses that would enable them to produce this vaccine without a license from the international patent holders. It turns out that the vaccine in question – currently the hottest property in the international pharmaceutical market – is Tamiflu, which is patented by the US company Gilead Sciences, a California-based biotech company which is so far jealously guarded its patent and has not granted any licenses to others. While Tamiflu is manufactured and marketed under license by the Swiss multinational drug company Roche, Gilead receives a royalty of 10 per cent of sales from Roche. The current fears of a pandemic of Asian bird flu, and the consequent rush to procure this vaccine Tamiflu, has sent the share price of Gilead soaring from $35 a share less than six months ago to as much as $47 at the moment. And it is likely to grow even more now that President Bush has announced plans to spend vast quantities to buy and stockpile huge quantities of this vaccine as a protective measure. Already in July this year, the Pentagon had purchased $58 million worth of this vaccine for the use of US troops across the world. The US Congress, encouraged by George Bush, is considering a multi-billion dollar purchase. And the alarm created by the media has mobilised so many private buyers that there is now a huge shortage of the vaccine in the market and supplies are being black-marketed. For those who enjoy conspiracy theories, or like to hear further evidence of crony capitalism in operation, here is an example to rival the now-stale stories about US Vice-President Dick Cheney and the arms company Halliburton that got so many contracts in Iraq. It turns out that one of the largest shareholders in Gilead Sciences is US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. He will clearly gain to the tune of millions of dollars. A recent article in Fortune magazine (31 October 2005) reveals that Rumsfeld served as Gilead Research's chairman from 1997 until he joined the Bush administration in 2001, and that he still holds a Gilead stake valued at anywhere between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial disclosures. Rumsfeld is one of the wealthiest members of the Bush cabinet, which is already famous for its billionaires. But he is not the only beneficiary in high places. Apparently the list of Gilead shareholders reads like a Who's Who of the powerful in the US administration, ensuring that Rumsfeld will not be the only one around the White House whose pockets will feel heavier after this. The joke is that Tamiflu is seen to be currently the most effective chemical preventive treatment, but it is neither foolproof nor even particularly effective, since it is only known to work against one particular strain of a virus that is known to mutate very rapidly and combine with other strains. So in the event of a real outbreak, even if not of pandemic proportions, its efficacy is likely to limited at best and maybe even non-existent. This has not prevented it from being broadcast all over the US media as the only way for ordinary people to save themselves from this dread disease. We live in a world that gets curiouser and curiouser, where apocalyptic visions periodically dominate and take over popular imaginations with great ferocity, until they are replaced by another apocalyptic vision, whereupon the first one is all but forgotten. This may have been a feature of human society all along, but now the spread of media makes everything more international and more instant. So we lurch from actual catastrophes to imagined terrors. But the really curious thing is not that we do so, but that somehow, out of each such scare or actual incident, somewhere some company's profits shoot up and some very rich people get even richer. It is hard not to feel that we are all being taken for many different rides on these counts, even as actual existence becomes much more fragile and problematic for so many people.



© MACROSCAN 2005