Do you think it was right for Brazil to bypass a US patent for an AIDS drug to help its people?

Would you take peoples health over business practices?

I can understand that the patent holder will be angry. It's not right, but on the other hand you can't just let people die. I would have to say that it's wrong, but the lesser of evils. It would be more evil to let people die.

Sure. They're just trying to protect their people. But now they know they can't complain when it happens to them.

If it's saving lives, there has to be at least some degree of right in it

"Right" and "correct" are two different things. Most people would agree that it is always "right" to protect lives. However, that does not make it correct, especially when or if there are consequences that could cause other kinds of harm.

In this case, it's hard to see that there would be any major consequences to doing this. The drug company will be angry, and the US government may be upset, but it's doubtful either one will or would overtly retaliate for this type of action, because of public perception of pettiness and money-mongering.

On the other hand, there could be a lot of minor and difficult consequences that the drug company and US government could make for Brazil that would get the message across indirectly, such as hassling over other trade agreements, export rights, etc.

It's hard to know whether the potential damage from these consequences is worth the gain, especially since I don't know of the breadth of the AIDS epidemic in Brazil, nor of the actual market size for the specific AIDS medication there, e.g. how many people could actually pay for it at trade price. Obviously, if the epidemic is huge and few people could pay for it, the decision would be more "correct" than if the epidemic was small and many people could pay for it. My guess is that the epidemic is large and a lot of people could pay for the drug, so the "correct"-ness of the decision will remain controversial.