Fire In The Blood | Movie Review – Bringing To Light Medicine, Monopoly And Malice

That pharmaceutical companies prioritize accumulated profits for fellow human’s health is not fresh news, we’ve all heard and known some part of it since forever. But what we didn’t know was the scale to which we were cheated of our health-rights and money by the Western pharma companies, and Dylan Mohan Gray’s documentary Fire in the Blood does good to slap us out of this ignorance. With millions Asian and African lives at stake fighting AIDS, the companies upped their bank balance by stocking up the inexpensive medicines and not making it available to the affected people. The documentary accounts many real problems, solutions to which have never seen light. An HIV-affected poor person equated death, though the equation could’ve been changed. It even celebrates the various non-profit organizations and officials/activists fighting this injustice.

Fire in the blood

The film bounces many questions to your side, which are simple yet uneasy, and your incapability at offering an answer to the same shall further simmer the misery and anger within you. There are several real-life heroes cum activists featured in this documentary, with Yusuf Hamied of Cipla emerging as a soul-saver from India. Pharmaceutical company Cipla was founded by Yusuf’s father almost a century ago, and Yusuf slashed company-manufactured drug prices for the poorer nations so that people from these countries can reap benefits of their medicines. Respect for Yusuf rises exponentially, for he chose the paths less travelled and rated human life over money.

This documentary comes across as an important watch, and contains important speech-excerpts of George W Bush, Indira Gandhi, Bill Clinton, among others. We strongly recommend that you give this prominent piece a go because this is like the Inside Job of pharmaceutical companies, and missing it would be a crime.

Overall Rating – 4/5

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