#49: Drugs

Today, in the developing world, AIDS is not a death sentence. There are millions of people in Africa and around the globe who are alive right now thanks to lifesaving drugs—drugs they can afford. But it wasn't always that way.  In the year 2000, effective treatments existed—but the drug companies who owned them enforced their patents with a lethal ruthlessness, charging more than $30,000 per year per person. Only if you lived in rich countries like the US, could you afford to stay alive.  For most people on the planet—for nearly everyone in Africa—if you got HIV, you would develop AIDS and die. So what changed? How did we get from there to here?  The answer is one of the great social movement stories of all time.  Today, we kick off a series of shows tracing the epic fights that saved millons of lives—and the work that still needs doing.  Join me and our guest, Amy Kapczynski, to hear about a movement to change the rules on essential medicines, as the Flaming Sword of Justice starts now.