Our health care system is fucked.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The FDA has approved the first generic versions of the AIDS medication AZT, a move that could reduce the expense for people in the United States being treated for the disease.

AZT, an anti-retroviral drug that is also known as Zidovudine, helps prevent the AIDS virus from reproducing in the body. It is often used in combination with other medications to treat an HIV infection.

Generic versions of the drug have previously been unavailable in the United States because patent or market exclusivity restrictions prevented them from being marketed. Now that those patents have expired, versions of drug manufactured by Roxane Laboratories of Columbus, Ohio; Ranbaxy Laboratories of Guragon, India, and Aurobindo Pharma of Hyderabad, India, can go on the market.

The original, sold under the name Retrovir, is manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline. The Food and Drug Administration first approved Retrovir in 1987. A 300-milligram tablet can cost $7.

``These approvals will now allow those infected with HIV more access to these life-saving drugs within our country,'' said Mike Leavitt, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, in a statement.

I'm sorry, call me a Commie socialist pig dog, I don't care, but drugs that are so integral to treatment such as this simply belong the public domain. Half the shit they come up with is funded partly or better by federal grants and such as well. Too much university stuff gets sucked up by corporations after being developed on the taxpayers dime, who then have no access to the damn thing they just funded.

We give this crap away in third world countries, but it was unaffordable to a significant percentage of our domestic population. That's simply wrong, period. Capitalism should not trump people's lives. Have the feds buy them out after development or something, but make it happen.

Drug companies spend more, a fair amount more actualy, on marketing then they do development, and the marketing is suspect as it is. They give away free stuff to doctors, pay for related 'seminars' at luxery resorts, and constantly fudge findings and risks. They don't deserve the protection they receive, let alone the free giveaway contained in the Medicare bill.

It's time we took back our health.