Swine Flu - Drug Companies Rejoice!

Isn’t it amazing how the first mention of a so-called epidemic, brings the drug companies to the fore literally rubbing their hands together, because they know that sales of their drugs are going to hit the roof?

One such company GlaxoSmithKline had a sharp rise of 5% in their shares once the World Health Organisation announced that there could be a Swine Flu Pandemic.

So the drug companies and investors will be making huge profits from a disaster which may or may not occur. If you’re a shrewd investor you would have got in and bought up as many shares as you could as soon as there was any hint of an epidemic.

It seems morally wrong to me that companies and investors can become rich because of the misfortunate people struck down with Swine Flu. In times of crisis, the costs of drugs should either be reduced significantly or given free to stop the epidemic from spreading.

The swine flu is a descendant of the infamous "Spanish flu" that caused a devastating pandemic in humans in 1918-1919. In less than a year, that pandemic killed more than 500,000 Americans and some 20 million people worldwide - the greatest number ever killed in so short a period by any natural or man-made catastrophe.

In times of need we want the major drug companies to step up and offer help with supplying the world with the proper medications to prevent the Swine Flu epidemic from spreading worldwide.