 Intellectual property regimes and international trade agreements provide tremendous protections for pharmaceutical companies in wealthy countries, with the result that many drugs and biologics are priced well beyond what low-income countries can afford. To take what some consider the most egregious case, should restrictions on the production and distribution of generics be upheld even when they hinder the containment of easily treatable diseases in poor countries (Pogge 2002; Grover, Citro, Mankad and Lander 2012)?