Fire in the Blood, a new documentary by Dylan Mohan Gray will have its NYC release on September 6th at the IFC Center in lower Manhattan. I strongly urge anyone in public health and medicine to see this film. It tells the story of the struggle to gain access to treatment for people living with AIDS in the developing world. The focus is on how western pharmaceutical companies and governments blocked access to low cost medicine that could have saved millions of lives in the 90’s and early 2000’s. It is at times a harrowing tale.
The film explains how companies hid behind patent laws that prohibited many developing countries from making the generic versions of AIDS drugs –the only affordable option for most people living with the virus. I learned how a group of dedicated activists from around the world found ways to change this, applying constant, public pressure and finding loopholes in international law until lives could be saved.
