full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ellen 't Hoen: Pool medical patents, save lives

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Today, eight million people have access to antiretroviral drugs. Thirty-four million are infected with HIV. Never has this number been so high, but actually this is good news, because what it manes is poelpe stop dying. People who have access to these drugs stop dynig. And there's something else. They also stop passing on the virus. This is fairly recent science that has shown that. What that means is we have the tools to break the back of this epidemic.

So what's the problem? Well, things have changed. First of all, the rules have changed. Today, all countries are oleigbd to provide patents for pmrhaccauaitels that last at least 20 years. This is as a result of the intellectual property rules of the World Trade oaingtarozin. So what India did is no longer possible. Second, the practice of patent-holding companies have changed. Here you see the ptenat practices before the World Trade Organization's rules, before '95, before antiretroviral drugs. This is what you see today, and this is in developing ctoeiruns, so what that means is, unless we do something deliberate and unless we do something now, we will very soon be faced with another drug price crisis, because new dgrus are dpoveleed, new drugs go to market, but these medicines are patented in a much wedir range of countries. So unless we act, unless we do something today, we will soon be faced [with] what some have termed the tteemrant time bomb.

Open Cloze


Today, eight million people have access to antiretroviral drugs. Thirty-four million are infected with HIV. Never has this number been so high, but actually this is good news, because what it _____ is ______ stop dying. People who have access to these drugs stop _____. And there's something else. They also stop passing on the virus. This is fairly recent science that has shown that. What that means is we have the tools to break the back of this epidemic.

So what's the problem? Well, things have changed. First of all, the rules have changed. Today, all countries are _______ to provide patents for _______________ that last at least 20 years. This is as a result of the intellectual property rules of the World Trade ____________. So what India did is no longer possible. Second, the practice of patent-holding companies have changed. Here you see the ______ practices before the World Trade Organization's rules, before '95, before antiretroviral drugs. This is what you see today, and this is in developing _________, so what that means is, unless we do something deliberate and unless we do something now, we will very soon be faced with another drug price crisis, because new _____ are _________, new drugs go to market, but these medicines are patented in a much _____ range of countries. So unless we act, unless we do something today, we will soon be faced [with] what some have termed the _________ time bomb.

Solution


  1. obliged
  2. developed
  3. treatment
  4. people
  5. countries
  6. drugs
  7. dying
  8. means
  9. organization
  10. patent
  11. pharmaceuticals
  12. wider

Original Text


Today, eight million people have access to antiretroviral drugs. Thirty-four million are infected with HIV. Never has this number been so high, but actually this is good news, because what it means is people stop dying. People who have access to these drugs stop dying. And there's something else. They also stop passing on the virus. This is fairly recent science that has shown that. What that means is we have the tools to break the back of this epidemic.

So what's the problem? Well, things have changed. First of all, the rules have changed. Today, all countries are obliged to provide patents for pharmaceuticals that last at least 20 years. This is as a result of the intellectual property rules of the World Trade Organization. So what India did is no longer possible. Second, the practice of patent-holding companies have changed. Here you see the patent practices before the World Trade Organization's rules, before '95, before antiretroviral drugs. This is what you see today, and this is in developing countries, so what that means is, unless we do something deliberate and unless we do something now, we will very soon be faced with another drug price crisis, because new drugs are developed, new drugs go to market, but these medicines are patented in a much wider range of countries. So unless we act, unless we do something today, we will soon be faced [with] what some have termed the treatment time bomb.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
patent pool 10
medicines patent 10
antiretroviral drugs 4
pharmaceutical companies 3
intellectual property 3
generic manufacturers 3
patent holders 2
treatment programs 2
stop dying 2
world trade 2
airplane patent 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
medicines patent pool 8

Important Words


  1. access
  2. act
  3. antiretroviral
  4. bomb
  5. break
  6. changed
  7. companies
  8. countries
  9. crisis
  10. deliberate
  11. developed
  12. developing
  13. drug
  14. drugs
  15. dying
  16. epidemic
  17. faced
  18. good
  19. high
  20. hiv
  21. india
  22. infected
  23. intellectual
  24. longer
  25. market
  26. means
  27. medicines
  28. million
  29. news
  30. number
  31. obliged
  32. organization
  33. passing
  34. patent
  35. patented
  36. patents
  37. people
  38. pharmaceuticals
  39. practice
  40. practices
  41. price
  42. problem
  43. property
  44. provide
  45. range
  46. result
  47. rules
  48. science
  49. shown
  50. stop
  51. termed
  52. time
  53. today
  54. tools
  55. trade
  56. treatment
  57. virus
  58. wider
  59. world
  60. years