#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\u2014drugs they can afford.\n\nBut it wasn't always that way.\xa0\n\nIn the year 2000, effective treatments existed\u2014but 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.\xa0\n\nFor most people on the planet\u2014for nearly everyone in Africa\u2014if you got HIV, you would develop AIDS and die.\n\nSo what changed? How did we get from there to here?\xa0\n\nThe answer is one of the great social movement stories of all time.\xa0\n\nToday, we kick off a series of shows tracing the epic fights that saved millons of lives\u2014and the work that still needs doing.\xa0\n\nJoin 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.\xa0