The Revised

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About this book
This book is an expanded and updated version of the earlier A Lay Person's
Guide to Medicine published in December 2000.

This book is a renewed attempt to alert the reader to the widespread crisis
in medicine created by drug policies which go against the safe interests of all
people. India's pharma industry and stock markets are "shining" and
booming, but by and large it is a story of poverty and inadequacy amidst
plenty.

Medicines and the pharma industry have started to occupy center stage in
the public imagination thanks to the vigorous contestation on patents,
intellectual property rights, WTO, HIV/AIDS drugs at low prices, and so on.
From January 2005, India abandoned a process patent regime that served it
well. India is in the process of opening up its health sector for the dollars it
brings, even as India's pharma elite is rapidly trying to "integrate" with the
global ruling class.

LOCOST (Low Cost Standard Therapeutics), founded in 1983, is a not-for-

profit trust based at Vadodara (Baroda), India. LOCOST is committed to the
A Lay Person's
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