More on the White House/PhRMA deal
In an August 14, 2009 article in the LA Times, Tom Hamburger provides yet another installment in the ongoing disclosures about a secret White House deal with PhRMA on pharmaceutical pricing.
Author: James Love
Recap on the House vote on Biosimilars
The rollcall for the biosimilars vote in on the Internet here. Based upon the count released by the committee, voting for the Eshoo Amendment were 26 Democrats and 21 Republicans. Voting against were 1 republican (Deal) and 10 Democrats. One Republican did not vote. I have bolded the Nay votes.
KEI statement on adoption of Eshoo/Barton amendment
In a roll call vote, the Eshoo/Barton amendment passed by a vote of 47 to 11. A number of consumer groups are issuing statements. This is the KEI statement on the vote.
James Love, Director Knowledge Ecology International (KEI),
(+1) (202) 361-3040, james.love@keionline.org
2009: White House: ACTA still “secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy”
By James Love, on July 31st, 2009
On Thursday, July 30, 2009, the White House office of the United States Trade Representative denied release of 4 new proposals for text that were circulated in July to “all countries” in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations. The request was limited to documents that were prepared in the past 90 days for purpose of discussion at the July 2009 ACTA negotiating meeting held in Morocco.
USTR located 4 such documents, but denied the FOIA request under 5 USC 552(b)(1). The specific exception cited reads as follows:
ACTA and changes in global norms for damages and injunctions (for enforcement of intellectual property)
The Obama Administration, with the support of a Democrat-controlled U.S. Congress, is insisting the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations be conducted in secret. We know, from documents obtained in Europe and the summaries released in April 2009, that the draft ACTA has sections that deal with both injunctions and damages. We don’t have the current text. Continue Reading
The HELP Committee and Eshoo/Barton language on biosimilars (biogenerics)
Here are links to the language adopted in the HELP committee, and the most recent version of the Eshoo/Barton proposal on biosimilars. In many areas, the Eshoo/Barton language is worse than the already bad bill adopted in the HELP committee.
Broken promise by President Obama on parallel trade in pharmaceuticals
As candidates, almost all democrats have promised voters, in several elections, they will support parallel trade in pharmaceuticals from Canada and other high income countries. As elected officials, nothing happens. President Obama already has authority to permit imports of medicines, if he wanted to exercise it. But not only is the White House not fullfillinbg the promise to allow imports, it has promised the CEO of PhRMA and several big companies that they won’t allow parallel trade in the health reform bill.
2009 NGO Letter to USTR on transparency
On July 22, 2009, eight public interest, consumer and public health organizations wrote to the United States Trade Representative (USTR), recommending the USTR and other federal agencies reduce secrecy and increase transparency in negotiations that involve global norms for knowledge… Continue Reading
Howard Dean: “I’m actually not a shill for the bio industry”
The Center for American Progress hosted a video conference of Dr. Howard Dean talking about Health Care reform on Tueday. The video is on the web here. On this one hour program, Howard Dean spends a little over 3 minutes responding to allegations that he is a “shill” for BIO, on the issue of biosimilars.
Pfizer shifts more money to Democrats
According to data from OpenSecrets.Org, from 1992 to 2006, Pfizer gave 74 percent of its campaign contributions to Republicans. Since then, particularly after Hank McKinnell left as CEO, Pfizer is giving slightly more to democrats than to republicans. In the current cycle, 54 percent of contributions go to democrats. Continue Reading