It is almost 10pm here in Bristol, UK. I am here, watching a programme o­n Channel 4 called ' Dying For Drugs '. I have found myself sobbing during what is now the last half hour of this expos documentary regarding the despicable ways in which Big Pharma (the big pharmaceutical corporations such as Pfizer, Novartis) are operating today and killing millions of innocents.

To the Malaysian broadcasters, try and get hold of this documentary from UK's Channel 4. People back home need to see this. They need to see the way in which people who are poor and living in the developing world are being exploited - children are being exploited right up to their deathbeds.

There have been four cases discussed in this documentary. I am going to have to skim through them, but I will highlight the final case, as it was shattering to watch. First off we were shown a village called Kano in Nigeria in which, when there was an epidemic of meningitis. Pfizer went in, and experimented with a new drug (that had not been approved of in the West) upon children dying in the village. Human testing is essential for a drug to be approved and rules are stringent in America and Europe so drug companies are moving to the Third World, especially Africa, where people are too poor without much choice and are not informed as to their rights.

The second case discussed was about a doctor in Toronto who is an expert o­n thalassemia. She came up with some research for a new pill that would do away with the painful 10-hour ritual patients had to go through every night with needles. She got a drug company to support the project but it came to a point where she realised that the side effects were worrying in some cases. She informed the company, but they, scared of losing a potential multi-million dollar opportunity where they would have exclusive rights to the drug, took her off the project and threatened to sue her if she warned any of her patients or anyone else of the dangers of the drug. She even got fired from her job and no support from her university at which she was a researcher due to the fact that both places were receiving big sponsorships from the drug company.

The third case was in South Korea where leukemia patients who took part in a trial with Swiss drug company Novartis now find that the pills are too expensive for most of them to afford. o­ne pill is US$19 (RM72)! The man who was the focus of the segment is a young husband and father. He said he could not afford the drug for much longer and that he would have to stop going o­n it which will mean certain death for him eventually.

But he cannot bring himself to tell his wife this, rather choosing to tell her that the drug is just not working, making easier for her to understand. They have a two-year-old daughter. The health minister at the time tried to get the rights to produce a generic version. He got a stern warning

from the United States and eventually was fired from government for no reason. Thailand has experienced similar strong-arm tactics when they wanted to produce generic drugs for AIDS cheaply - the US threatened to slap tariffs o­n goods from Thailand.

India so far is the o­nly country, besides Brazil, that has a thriving and reputable generic industry. A group from Korea visited o­ne of the companies in Bombay and were told that those pills that they had to buy for US$19 (RM72) - this company would make it and sell it for a mere US$1 (RM3.8)! We are the told that Big Pharma regards this as 'piracy' and has got the World Trade Organisation to put a stop to it next year. That means people dying of AIDS and cancer in poorer nations will have to find ways of coughing up what is at times US$25 (RM95) per pill.

However it was the last segment that left me in tears. Here we were introduced to a young orphan in Honduras dying of AIDS. If he lived in the West, he would never have been allowed to get to the stage at where he is. He is merely a shell of a child. The drugs he needs costs US$25 (RM95) per pill. This is unattainable, and he can't get access to the sort of generic drugs provided by India.

In the end, we watched him die, all because drug companies selfishly think about obscene profits and nothing else. There is no justification offered by drug companies over what is being done.

I am 20 years old this year, and I know that in the future I will be married and have children of my own. After watching this documentary, I know that the reason I weep is out of fear for the fact that o­ne day, a capitalist corporation might hold the life of my sick child in its hand.

A Medecins Sans Frontieres representative noted the fact that right at this very moment there are eight new erectile dysfunction drugs in development, when simple yet devastating diseases like malaria and TB need new drugs to replace the old o­nes that are becoming less and less effective.

These companies have been doing this for too long. Let's put a damn stop to it right now.