[Pharm-policy] Nader to Gore letter on pharmaceutical drugs

[James Love]

12 October 2000

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Fax: (202) 456-7044


Dear Vice President Gore,

I am pleased to hear that you intend to address the issue of unjust pricing
of pharmaceutical drugs.  I would be interested in your views on the
following issues.

1.  Will you support an end to the bans of parallel imports of
pharmaceuticals from Canada, Europe and Japan, subject to regulation to
ensure product safety, so that US citizens can buy drugs at the lower prices
now available to consumers in foreign countries?  Do you think the current
legislation on reimportation of pharmaceutical drugs goes far enough in
protecting US consumers from global price discrimination?  Do you agree with
Representative Sanders, Senator Dorgan, myself, and others that there should
be fewer restrictions on parallel imports, and greater access by US
consumers to foreign markets?

2.  Will you end the practice of routinely allowing giant pharmaceutical
companies to obtain exclusive rights to pharmaceutical drugs developed with
the help of U.S. government funding, and then to sell these drugs at
outrageous prices?

3.  Will you agree to allow the World Health Organization and UNAIDS to use
US government rights in pharmaceutical patents in poor countries?   For
example, will you allow UNAIDS and the WHO to use the US government patent
rights on d4T, ddI, ddC, Abacavir, Ritonavir, and many other drugs, medical
devices and diagnostic techniques that the government invented or helped to
invent, and retains patent rights in, to improve health care in poor
countries?  As you know, Secretary Shalala has refused to do this.   I
believe it is morally repugnant to withhold these rights, and thereby
deprive poor and sick people of life-saving medicines.

4.  Will you support legislation to authorize the US government to issue
compulsory licenses to patents on medicines and gene technologies, in the
event that the patent owners charge unreasonable prices for access to new
medical inventions?  Compulsory licenses would reduce prices by allowing
competitors to manufacture and sell generic products, while paying royalties
to the patent holder.

5.  Will you support patent exceptions or compulsory licensing to prevent
patent-holders from using patents to block medical research, or to block the
commercial use of medical technologies?

Sincerely,
Ralph Nader



-- 
James Love  mailto:love@cptech.org http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology, P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
voice 1.202.387.8030  fax  1.202.234.5176