Brazil won its showdown with Abbott Laboratories, which I originally wrote about here. After ten days of negotiations, Abbott has agreed to sell the Brazilian government more drugs for the same price. This is not the first time that Brazil has received cheaper drugs by threatening to break patents and manufacture generics.
Eventually, one of these drug companies will stop reducing the prices for Brazil, at which time Brazil will show whether it is really willing to follow through on its threat (and there are reasons not to). Today, however, Brazil has once again forced a pharmaceutical company to blink. It's a lesson for those countries interested in playing hardball politics with soft power.
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