German pharmaceuticals firm Merck KGaA is no longer delivering cancer drug Erbitux to Greek hospitals. Germany's Biotest in June was the first to stop shipments to Greece because of unpaid bills.
Publicly-owned hospitals in some countries worst hit by the euro zone debt crisis had been struggling to pay their bills, Merck's chief financial officer, Matthias Zachert, was quoted as saying. Erbitux is Merck's second best-selling prescription drug, bringing in sales of 855 million euros ($1.1 billion) in 2011 from treating bowel cancer and head and neck cancer.
More than 2.34 million people in Greece are living below the poverty line, due largely to a barrage of pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions that have hit workers, pensioners and the poor while the rich, politicians, and tax evaders have largely escaped sacrifice. Half of all Greeks have trouble paying their bills, as almost two thirds – 63 percent – of Greeks make ends meet “with difficulty” or “with great difficulty.”
The 2011 survey said almost 20 percent of respondents couldn’t keep their home adequately warm, about 33 percent said they are late in paying rent, mortgages and credit card payments, and more than 50 percent said they can’t afford a one-week vacation.
Publicly-owned hospitals in some countries worst hit by the euro zone debt crisis had been struggling to pay their bills, Merck's chief financial officer, Matthias Zachert, was quoted as saying. Erbitux is Merck's second best-selling prescription drug, bringing in sales of 855 million euros ($1.1 billion) in 2011 from treating bowel cancer and head and neck cancer.
More than 2.34 million people in Greece are living below the poverty line, due largely to a barrage of pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions that have hit workers, pensioners and the poor while the rich, politicians, and tax evaders have largely escaped sacrifice. Half of all Greeks have trouble paying their bills, as almost two thirds – 63 percent – of Greeks make ends meet “with difficulty” or “with great difficulty.”
The 2011 survey said almost 20 percent of respondents couldn’t keep their home adequately warm, about 33 percent said they are late in paying rent, mortgages and credit card payments, and more than 50 percent said they can’t afford a one-week vacation.
Austerity budgets have resulted in drastic cutbacks in municipal spraying schemes to combat mosquito borne diseases.
ReplyDeleteIn what is believed to be a first for Western Europe, Greece has experienced the first domestic cases of malaria since 1974.Only eight of 56 districts around Athens undertook anti-mosquito spraying this year.
Other mosquito-borne diseases that have slipped back into Greece include West Nile virus.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/9626423/Malaria-returns-to-crisis-torn-Greece.html
Worst than that was the ban of DDT, that is harmeless to people, an ideal weapon agaist malaria,which caused the death of 50 million people in poor countries. Nevertheless, Silent Spring is still being appraised by leftists.
ReplyDeleteAntónio