Hey there, this is an arm and a leg, I'm Dan Weissman, and I've got to share something

that happened like two days after our last episode came out, and it looks like holy

movie.

So our last two episodes were about efforts by best-selling author and YouTube legend, John

Greene, and a boatload of international activists who have been working for like 20 years to

get the drug maker, Johnson and Johnson, to ease up on its patent rights to an important

drug for fighting tuberculosis called Bedaquin, so that cheaper generics could save

more lives.

And you'll remember, Johnson and Johnson had said yes, but only kind of.

It would allow cheaper generics to get distributed, but only to certain countries.

Here's John Greene on YouTube, picking up the story a couple days after our episode came

out.

Many countries, including Ukraine and South Africa and tons of others, were left out of

that deal, and so it always felt like a little bit of a win, but a compromise win.

So groups like doctors without borders and partners in health kept pushing for more, for

Johnson and Johnson to agree to not enforce its remaining patents on the drug in any low

and middle-income countries.

And I've always been like, well, I mean, that's probably not going to happen, but it just

happened.

Yeah.

Johnson and Johnson said yes to everything those folks had asked for.

So wow.

...