[Ip-health] Korea hearing and health: Rep. Blumenauer's tobacco questions, pharma

[Ellen Shaffer]

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Yesterday's hearing on the Korea-US trade agreement by the Trade
Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee had a bright spot
in questions by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Portland, OR), long a
champion on tobacco control.  Rep. Blumemauer asked USTR Rep. Karan
Bhatia what the US is proposing to protect the health of Koreans from
lethal tobacco products. He pointed out that 2/3 of Korean men smoke,
largely as a result of US marketing policies in the 1980s and 90s,
with significant adverse health consequences.  He got a commitment
from USTR to respond in writing.  CPATH, the AMA, the San Francisco
Tobacco Free Coalition and others have been encouraging Committee
members to address tobacco control issues, and to call for excluding
tariff and nontariff measures related to tobacco control from trade
agreements. (see http://www.cpath.org/id29.html)

However, the subcommittee fully advocated opening up Korea's national
health care system to the marketing tactics of transnational drug
companies.  Although millions in the US cannot afford medicines sold
under this system, Congress claims that  it will be fine for Koreans,
who have an average income of $16,000  year.  Reps. Pascrell and
Levin commented on the importance of ending "discrimination" against
TNC's pharmaceutical products in Korea, which has its own generic
industry. They urged the USTR to press harder for PhARMA's call for
greater industry intrusion into Korean drug pricing and selection - a
measure that could also destabilize US purchasing programs for
Medicaid, Medicare, the DoD and VA - and to introduce data
exclusivity and patent linkage rules, which in the Korean context
serve only to to extend monopoly patent rights and delay
price-reducing competition.  The Korean Alliance Against KorUS FTA,
in its report to Congress on Feb. 9, documented cases of people
living with HIV/AIDS who cannot get access to second-line Fuzeon
because Roche is demanding $20,000 a year per patient, and noted that
the system pays over $31 million a year to treat 2,000 leukemia
patients with Gleevec.

Members of Congress should be pressed to protect health and the right
to affordable medicines in all pending and future trade agreements,
including Korea, Malaysia and Thailand, as well as Peru, Colombia and
Panama.  Rep. Henry Waxman and his colleagues are calling on Congress
to live up to its Trade Act objectives that call for balancing
corporate intellectual property rights with people's human right to
affordable medicines.  Trade Subcommittee members should join
them.  - Ellen Shaffer

Ellen R. Shaffer, PhD, MPH, Co-Director
Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health (CPATH)
98 Seal Rock Drive
San Francisco, CA 94121-1437

phone: 415-933-6204
email: ershaffer@cpath.org
mobile: 415-680-4603
www.cpath.org
fax: 415-831-4091
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