20th January 2000

Merger creates the world's largest
drugs company

over: during

eradicate: to remove or destroy something completely

alien: completely unlike normal behaviour

In theory they would have more capacity to develop new drugs, but in practice, so far, we haven't seen any signs of any of the big companies investing in developing drugs that are specifically useful for poor people, and the other important thing is making drugs at a price affordable to poor people and to health services in poor countries. So if you create a giant company and you're developing a drug then you have a monopoly on that drug, and particularly with the new World Trade Organisation's agreements on intellectual property rights, it makes new inventions very well protected. Therefore, companies can dictate the price they want, and that makes it very difficult for poor people.

in theory: you use in theory to say that although something is supposed to happen or to be the case, it may not in fact happen or be the case.

capacity: here capacity means ability

in practice: what happens in practice is what really happens, in contrast to what is supposed to happen.

affordable: if something is affordable, you have enough money to be able to pay for it

monopoly: the control or possession of a particular thing by only one person, group or, as in this case, organisation

intellectual property rights: legal rights protecting the results of creativity and giving the person or organisation owning the rights the right to control their use

dictate: here dictate means control