The exorbitant prices of medicines in the United States, from the Americans irradiated by the preludes in Hiroshima, ten million dollars of contraceptives to make disappear, equality as a vector of well-being also in men and plastic pollution on the beaches of CAP-Vert: these are the choices of RTSINFO week.
Health-Why are drugs so expensive in the United States?
Last Thursday, Donald Trump ordered 17 laboratories to lower the price of medicines in the United States, under penalty of reprisals. This threat, after a decree signed in mid-May, relaunches a promise of his first mandate that remained in vain. Why are medication prices higher in the United States than elsewhere? Explanations.
An analysis proves Donald Trump. The prices charged in the United States on prescription drugs are on average 2.78 times higher, according to a study of the Consulting and Research Company Rand Corporation, published in February 2024 and based on figures of 2022 of a panel of prescription drugs in 33 OECD countries.
Sensitive variations exist depending on the country compared. The gross prices of manufacturers for prescription drugs are thus 3.26 times higher in the United States than in France, when it is for example only 1.72 times higher than in Mexico, but more than 10 times more than in Turkey. Compared to Switzerland, Americans pay 2.18 times more.
In the end, behind the very high prices of drugs in the United States hides a deeply American problem: a system without real central negotiator, tailor -made laws and regulations for industry, and massive lobbying that protects the margins of laboratories.
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HISTORY – In the United States, forgotten by the first atomic tests are fighting to obtain compensation
80 years ago, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Designed and tested in the New Mexico desert, they have caused cancers and other diseases in irradiated residents of the region. The latter have finally obtained a first victory.
On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb in history, nicknamed “Gadget”, exploded in an almost forgotten desert in the world near Alamogordo in the state of New Mexico. “It was probably the most secret project of the Second World War. Doing this test far from the population centers had to hold the curious from a distance,” said Jenn Jett of White Sands Missile Range Museum in the 19:30 of the RTS.
Other tests followed, in a region not completely deserted: half a million people then lived within a radius of 240 km around the site. These are the “Downwinders”, the forgotten of the first nuclear tests.
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>> Also listen to the series of five episodes of a whole world on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 80 years later:
>> To find the other episodes on the page of A whole world
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Controversy – American contraceptives dedicated to being destroyed in France arouse controversy
In mid-July, Washington announced that he wanted to destroy, possibly in France, a vast stock of female contraceptives intended for humanitarian aid. Denological as ideological, the decision arouses indignation. A petition was launched, asking Emmanuel Macron to act to avoid this waste.
These products (hormonal implants and IUDs) had been purchased under the chairmanship of Joe Biden for reproductive health programs, especially in Africa, according to the US State Department.
Estimated at nearly $ 10 million (around 8 million francs), the stock has been stored for several months in Geel, Belgium, according to several media. Always valid – their deadline goes until 2031 – these contraceptives had to be cremated in France “at the end of July”, according to the US State Department, now in charge of what remains of international aid.
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Company – When equality improves the quality of life of men
Work, family and sex life: equality benefits men. The researcher and philosopher Johan Rochel defends his thesis in a manifesto intended for all those – and all those – who feel bored by the current debate.
Equality is not a “zero -sum game” reassures Johan Rocl on Friday in the morning. Understand: if women gain in terms of equality, that does not mean that men will lose something.
The philosopher takes place the example of family life. “I have the impression that many men are assistants of a family life who is largely organized without them, under the supervision of their partner,” he describes. According to him, the men “kill each other”, spending shortly with their children, or only in certain types of activities. “More equality will lead men to have more time with their family, if they wish, without women losing it,” says Johan Rocl.
>> His interview in the morning:
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Environment – Plastic pollution in Cape Verde, an ecological challenge without borders
Each year, a cleaning operation is carried out on the desert island of Santa Luzia, in the heart of a protected marine area of Cape Verde, especially for the sea turtles which are laying there. NGOs face an influx of dozens of tonnes of plastic waste each year from around the world.
In ten years of cleaning campaigns, just on the Achados beach, the NGO has collected nearly 600 tonnes of plastic waste. But not a single kilo was able to leave the island of Santa Luzia, details on 7:30 p.m. in a report.
Without the possibility of incineration or recycling solution, these pile of plastic, dried by the sun and whipped by the sand, inevitably degraded, resulting in eternal pollution.
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