Big Pharma Revealed As Puppetmaster
It
is no secret that US healthcare corporations have been among, if not
the biggest beneficiaries of Obamacare: by "socializing" costs and
spreading the reimbursement pool over the entire population in the form
of a tax, pharmaceutical companies have been able to boost medical
product and service costs to unprecedented levels with the help of
complicit insurance companies who have subsequently passed through these
costs to the consumer, in the process sending the price of biotech and
pharma stocks to levels not seen since the dot com bubble.
But when it came to the highly confidential TPP, it was unclear just which corporations were dominant in pulling the strings.
Now thanks to more
documents published by Wikileaks, and analyzed by the NYT,
it appears that "BIG PHARMA" is once again pulling the strings, this
time of the Trans Pacific Partnership, which if passed will "empower big
pharmaceutical firms to command higher reimbursement rates in the
United States and abroad, at the expense of consumers" according to
"public health professionals, generic-drug makers and activists opposed
to the trade deal."
In
other words, just like the narrowly-passed Obamacare was a gift for big
Pharma, so America's legal drug dealers are now trying to go for
another price boosting catalyst, one which however will involve not just
the US but some 12 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Worst of all,
the negotiations for the next price increase is taking place in utmost
secrecy where "American negotiators are still pressing participating
governments to open the process that sets reimbursement rates for drugs
and medical devices."
As
RT notes, the latest disclosure links the Healthcare Annex
to the secret draft of the quite aptly-named "Transparency" Chapter of
the TPP, along with each country's negotiating position. The leaked
"Annex on transparency and procedural fairness for pharmaceutical
products and medical devices" is dated from December 2014, with the
draft being restricted from release for four years after the passage of
the TPP into law.
RELEASE: TPP Transparency Chapter Healthcare Annex
https://t.co/jc4hYqh06V #TPP #TTIP #TISA pic.twitter.com/xIlO4QCUu6
- WikiLeaks (@wikileaks)
June 10, 2015
Worse,
while in the US the rising healthcare costs are at least spread across a
broader social safety net, the TPP is targeting countries where the
potential jump in drug prices will have dramatic effects. As the NYT
notes, "foreign governments and health care activists have accused
pharmaceutical giants, mostly based in the United States, of protecting
profits over public health, especially in poor countries where neither
the government nor consumers can afford to pay rates anywhere close to
those charged in wealthier nations. "
That
fight re-emerged in the Pacific trade negotiations, which involve
countries with strong cost-containment policies, like New Zealand, as
well as poor countries like Peru and Vietnam.
The
agreement "will increase the cost of medicines worldwide, starting with
the 12 countries that are negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership,"
said Judit Rius Sanjuan, a lawyer at Doctors Without Borders, a
humanitarian organization that provides medical care in more than 60
countries.
None
other than the CEO of Mylan explained in the simplest possible way what
is going on: a government mandated monopoly under the guise of a trade
pact: "Heather Bresch, the chief executive of Mylan, one of the largest
generic-drug makers, said the brand-name pharmaceutical industry was
"establishing, through U.S. trade policy, an international system
designed to maximize its monopolies."
But
where the alarm bells truly go off is when someone, anyone, uses the
word "fair" to justify policy, such as surging drug costs. To wit:
"drug companies, however, say they need to be able to charge fair prices
to compensate for the billions of dollars and decades of research that
go into their medicines."
What
is amusing is that the true motive behind the TPP's secrecy have been
quite clear to virtually everyone but the population of the TPP's host
nation:
"It
was very clear to everyone except the U.S. that the initial proposal
wasn't about transparency. It was about getting market access for the
pharmaceutical industry by giving them greater access to and influence
over decision-making processes around pricing and reimbursement," said
Deborah Gleeson, a lecturer at the School of Psychology and Public
Health at La Trobe University in Australia. And even though the section,
known as the transparency annex, has been toned down, she said, "I
think it's a shame that the annex is still being considered at all for
the T.P.P."
RT adds that one country that should be in arms over the TPP is Australia:
The
secret negotiations now allegedly reveal that Australia's
Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme might be undermined, pushing up the cost
of medicines in the country.
"United
States trade negotiators have aggressively pushed for provisions
favoring multinational pharmaceutical manufacturers at the expense of
national governments and public healthcare systems," the Sydney Morning
Herald wrote.
But the one place where the biggest price shock may be unleashed is, not surprisingly, the US itself :
The
leaked TPP document "shows that the pact could expose Medicare to
pharmaceutical company attacks and constrain future policy reforms,
including the ability of the US government to curb rising and
unsustainable drug prices," the US consumer rights advocacy group and
think tank Public Citizen said in its Wednesday statement.
The
group says president Obama's administration has been "acting at the
behest of pharmaceutical companies," and the secret negotiations it has
been holding within the partnership might affect Medicare, limiting
"Congress' ability to enact policy reforms that would reduce
prescription drug costs for Americans."
The
same Congress, incidentally, which gladly washed its hands of any
discussion of the TPP when the Senate "fast-tracked" its passage and as
the NYT further notes, "a House vote on final passage of the bill, now
expected on Friday, appears extremely close."
In
other words, in exchange for a few million in lobby spending, aka
bribes, by Big Pharma, the US Congress has once again sold out the US
population, and this time it even voluntarily bypassed even the mock
democratic process of debating the law it will pass.
Why?
Just so shareholders of pharmaceutical companies could reap even
greater profits at the expense of not just the US population, but of the
populations of some of the biggest US trading partners, all of whom are
about to see the prices of medical care skyrocket.
And since nothing is confirmed until it is officially denied, here is the punchline:
"The
transparency annex in T.P.P. is not subject to Investor-State Dispute
Settlement, and nothing in its provisions will undermine our ability to
pursue the best health care policy for Americans, including any future
action on health care expenditures and cost containment," a trade
representative spokesman said.
Those
Americans who may wish to challenge the claim well, they are out of
luck: Congress is about to make sure there is no way anyone can have a
say into what big corporations have in store for the US population.
The full Transparency Chapter Healthcare Annex below
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/
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