Fire in the Blood

By Dylan Mohan Gray

This film is what pushed us to start this project. This documentary shows, in painstaking detail, how the legal protection of a patent on antiretroviral drugs led directly to the deaths of millions of people in Africa and across the Global South. A legal doctrine designed to advance innovation for the betterment of our society was used to protect a monopoly that resulted in a preventable genocide.

That word is not an exaggeration. When life saving medicines exist and Indian manufacturers are ready and able to produce them in sufficient quantities at a fraction of the cost and a legal tool is the only thing stopping those drugs from reaching millions of dying patients, what else can you call it? It is a failure of law, of ethics, and of our basic humanity.

This brings us to a stark reality we face. A successful patent opposition can cause the price of a life saving medicine to drop significantly. For people who need it, that price drop isn’t just a financial relief. It is the difference between treatment and a death sentence.

It was with this thought that the idea for IP Compass was born. It is our answer to the questions posed by "Fire in the Blood". It is a small act of rebellion against a system where a legal instrument can be valued more than a human life.