  |
 Obama: Don't help Pfizer attack generics with TPP!
Mon, July 2nd, Noon-2PM TPP: Good for Pfizer's Profits, Disastrous for People with AIDS The Obama administration is negotiating a Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement which will expand drug patent monopolies for about half the world. The high costs of patent monopolies, particularly for newer second- and third-line HIV/AIDS medicines — still commonly thousands of dollars per person per year — seriously limit the ability of governments and donors to scale up treatment access. High prices force impossible choices for health departments allocating fixed budgets insufficient to meet all of their public health obligations. Aid programs including the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief struggle to expand current treatment levels. The impetus for these proposed trade rules is the political and economic power of the patent-based pharmaceutical industry. Pfizer paid lobbying firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld $80,000 in 2012 to lobby Congress, the US Trade Representative, The US Department of Commerce and other agencies on issues including “intellectual property protections in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement; issues relating to the protection of U.S. intellectual property rights overseas.” To avoid public scrutiny, the negotiators have agreed that all documents except the final text will be kept secret for four years after the agreement comes into force or the negotiations collapse completely shutting civil society out of the negotiating process. As the negotiators meet in San Diego, join us for a protest to help bring TPP to light!
What You Can Do: * Learn more at our TPP page. * Attend the demonstration!
* Join a phone conference to learn more about TPP and to help plant the demonstration on Friday, June 29th @ 7PM. * Print this flyer (copy two sided and print four to a page) and distribute it to help promote the protest. Contact us at the number below if you'd like recommendations of places and events to distribute flyers. * Print copies of this form letter (2 copies to a page - cut them down the middle) and encourage get as many people as you can to sign it. Mail completed petitions to the address at the bottom of the letter. * Volunteer to call interested people to alert them to the demonstration or to dataenter signup sheets so we can email interested people. Contact us at the phone number below to let us know you'd like to help. Sponsored by TradeJustice NY Metro & OWS Trade Justice Working Group |