Are Glaxo Welcome the 'Evil Empire'?

Drug companies like Glaxo Welcome produce drugs used to treat HIV in 'combined drug therapy', which allows most HIV sufferers to live without developing AIDS.

However, most countries in Africa and Asia, where HIV infection is rife, can't afford the drugs. They cost a few cents to make (but millions to develop, but that has been recovered already)

Glaxo say "Why should we sell the drugs cheaply to those who can't afford our prices?"

Are Glaxo guilty of corporate murder??

Glaxo Wellcome are not responsible for the aids epidemic in Africa & Asia, these countries can easily afford the drugs you mention. The rest of the world send hundreds of millions to these countries every year but these countries [mostly dictatorships] would rather spend the money on there military or executive jets and expect western charities to feed and care for there people and that is not the fault of Glaxo Wellcome or any other drug company

I give this question a 1 in 10 chance possibility of actually lasting 24 hours before being deleted.

you raise an often debated point concerning the big pharmacuetical companies. They are only interested in developing treatments that allow rich westerners to live with their medical conditions, therefore keeping their profit streams going as long as possible and not actually developing cures and especially not for those without the means to pay for it.

The fact remains they are not charities, they are companies just like any other, which exist to make profits even if their line of business brings them under the spotlight of ethics and morality more than a business that makes coat hangers for example.

I don't want to write anything that a very well-paid lawyer could claim was libellous, so I'll just respond that pharmaceutical companies are responsible for some of the biggest crimes against humanity - not just for the things they do, but also for some they don't, including what you're referring to.