Evidently the BBC shares the same view as the Greek government that Pharmaceutical companies must be obliged to sell drugs at below cost, even if this means making a loss. That is what I take from the tone of this report. I suppose it’s tough for Socialists to understand the commercial mindset but haven’t they a duty to at least try? As someone who suffers from Diabetes myself, I am sympathetic with those affected by the decision to withdraw the insulin from the market BUT the responsibility lies with the absolute recklessness of the Greek government. The BBC skips over that pesky detail.
THOSE EVIL CAPITALISTS…
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Never mind the pesky detail that it costs millions to develop a new drug and fund the many reserach projects that come to a dead end.
This is aggravating. I’m already seeing several mentions by people of how evil Nova must be. I’m guessing they’re only reading the first few paragraphs of the article, because right at the end it says:
“a spokesman for Novo Nordisk said this issue was not about killing people. By way of compensation, he said the company would make available an insulin product called glucagen, free of charge.”
So it is only removing a more expensive applicator for the insulin, not supply of insulin itself – which it seems, it is now providing for free. Those evil bastards!
Having regularly had to fact check BBC articles before, out of curiousity I did it for this one too – just two minutes looking around and there’s already one oversimiplication, if not outright falsification.
According to Reuters the Greek government are introducing a “stepped” regime, applying different cuts to different products, with cuts going up to 27%. The weighted average Reuters reports is 21.5% across the board, so its simply not the case that the Greek government is “ordering a 25% price cut in all medicines.”
Thanks for holding our intelligence in contempt again BBC.
That’s the state of Greece. A nation full of deadbeats who think the rest of the world owes them a living.
Have they actually produced anything worthwhile since Homer?
And NO you’re not getting the Elgin frackin’ Marbles back.
Stir in a million or more Albanians and Turks, mostly illegal, and you have the recipe for a fine economy.
The Greek crisis has been going on for several weeks now. I have not heard a single in-depth report from the BBC on the roots of the crisis, on the deep malaise in the Greek economy.
D’oh!!! pace Homer (Simpson)
They’ve only removed their leading edge insulin application. The way the BBc writes it you’d think they are denying Greece any insulin whatsoever.
Really disgusting standard of journalism from the BBC.
Mark Steyn says some wise things in his usual inimitable witty way. It’s a way of looking at the world you will NEVER ever hear on the BBC. Why? Because well, they go against what the BBC believes as an institution; and what THEY believe goes. We only pay for it…
http://article.nationalreview.com/435157/king-barack-the-verbose/mark-steyn?page=1
Unlike Canute and Alfred, the vanity of Big Government knows no bounds. Tim Flannery, the Aussie global warm-monger who chaired the Copenhagen climate circus a few months back, announces with a straight face that “we’re trying to act as a species to regulate the atmosphere.” Never mind anything so footling as the incoming tides, but the very atmosphere! How do you do that? Well, first, take one extremely large check. Next, add several extra zeroes to it. Then, toss it out the window. “He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws”? Hah! That’s chickenfeed compared to the way things are gonna be once heaven, earth, and sea are forced to submit to a transnational micro-regulatory regime.
Almost every problem we face today arises from the vanity of Big Government…
Another superb article by Mark Steyn.
His one-man-band commentary on US affairs – available free- isd better than the entire BBC coverage..
He used to present a weekly arts prog for the BBC, US-oriented. Much better than most of the BBC dross.
Is the BBC’s long romance with the EURO really over?
BBC report:
“Remembering the happier days of the” [BBC] “Euro dream”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8710998.stm
Note how the BBC’s Mr. SHUKMAN negatively comments on Mrs Thatcher’s (correct) opposition to Britain joining the Euro, and contrasts this with, apparently, the more important pro-Euro views of one of Shukman’s French journalist buddies.
And note too how the BBC habitually views the issue of the Euro from a largely non-British point of view.
It is apparently the British people’s lot to provide the finance for the BBC to tout its advocacy of the European Union and of the Euro (including the BBC’s long-term political intent for British membership of both).
Non-BBC view:
“The collapse of the Euro would open the door to democracy”
(by Simon Heffer)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/simonheffer/7765275/The-collapse-of-the-euro-would-open-the-door-to-democracy.html
Something really needs to be done about the bloody Danes now, doesn’t it ?
First the Mohammed cartoons that offended the fun-loving Muslim world.
Next the AGW conference that achieved bugger all that was devoutly hoped for.
Now this: actually trying to run a business at some sort of profit.
What can be done to punish this infamous people?
What will bring them to their knees that they may know our righteous wrath ?
Buggy’s big suggestion: Repatriate Sandi Toksvig.