“Nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies what we have witnessed here,” says Dr Mohammed Tahir, an orthopaedic surgeon from London.“People bring in their children dead and want us to try to resuscitate them. They leave carrying the limbs of their dead children in cardboard boxes.”

Remember when Celgene patented Revlimid’s REMS programme and used it to prevent 14 generic manufacturers from purchasing enough samples of Revlimid to obtain FDA approval?

Remember when McKinsey gave a powerpoint presentation to AbbVie showing them how to tweak delivery devices to extend patent protection?

Remember when Amgen’s primary patent on Sensipar expired but they leveraged their patent thicket to delay competitors for years and made $202 million in 10 weeks?

Remember when AbbVie’s CEO Richard Gonzalez told investors that any company challenging AbbVie’s patents would be embroiled in “4 to 5 years” of litigation?