NGOs condemn US senator for allegedly pressuring Colombia over cancer drug

[Judi Lynn]

NGOs condemn US senator for allegedly pressuring Colombia over cancer drug

written by Lyra Bartell May 20, 2016

Several US non-profits have written a letter to Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the chairman of the US Senate Finance Committee, condemning his office’s alleged pressure on Colombia not to challenge the price of a life-saving cancer drug.

The letter comes in response to leaked Colombian cables from Washington to Bogota which warned that if Colombia challenged the price of the drug Gleevec, also known as Imatinib, the US might withhold its promised $450 million to assist in the peace talks through the new plan “Peace Colombia.”

The organizations KEI, Public Citizen, Oxfam America, and Healthgap signed the letter, all objecting to the reported threats stemming from the Senate Finance Committee, revealed by leaks memos from the Colombian embassy in Washington to Bogota.

“If these letters sent by the Embassy of Colombia are accurate, this is a highly inappropriate and wholly objectionable attempt to interfere with the right of the Colombian government to proceed with this compulsory license through threats and distortions. In our view it is particularly unconscionable that this be tied in any way to funding for Paz Colombia to support the peace process.”

More:
http://colombiareports.com/5-us-nonprofits-condemn-alleged-pressure-novartis-cancer-drug/

LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141458065

[Judi Lynn]

1. What's the point of having small countries under your thumb if you can't force them

to buy your financial backers' products?

[Judi Lynn]

2. Dear Senator: Do You Really Want Cancer Drugs To Be Super-Expensive?

Dear Senator: Do You Really Want Cancer Drugs To Be Super-Expensive?

Public health organizations are asking GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch why he seems so protective of pharmaceutical profits in Colombia.

5/19/2016 06:20 pm ET

Zach Carter 
Senior Political Economy Reporter, The Huffington Post

WASHINGTON — In late April, a Colombian diplomat sent two letters to leaders in Bogotá warning that efforts to lower the price of a major leukemia treatment could undermine a peace plan designed to end a half-century of conflict with Marxist rebels. After talks with both Obama administration trade officials and a key aide to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Andrés Flórez of the Colombian embassy became convinced that the U.S. government was willing to cut off $450 million in peace funding to retaliate if Colombia curbed profits on Gleevec, a breakthrough cancer drug.

Neither Hatch nor the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative have denied pressuring Colombia over the medication or invoking the peace program in private talks. The Flórez letters were first published by the nonprofit group Knowledge Ecology International more than a week ago.
Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis currently charges nearly double Colombia’s per-capita income to provide a single patient with a one-year supply of Gleevec, also marketed as Glivec. By issuing a so-called compulsory license, the Colombian government could allow a generic competitor to provide a copy of the drug at a dramatically lower price.

On Thursday, Knowledge Ecology International and three other public health organizations wrote a letter to Hatch asking him to explain his position. Hatch chairs the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees U.S. trade policy for Congress.

“If these letters sent by the Embassy of Colombia are accurate, this is a highly inappropriate and wholly objectionable attempt to interfere with the right of the Colombian government to proceed with this compulsory license through threats and distortions,” the letter reads. “In our view it is particularly unconscionable that this be tied in any way to funding ... to support the peace process.”

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/colombia-drugs-orrin-hatch_us_573e2b96e4b00e09e89e86aa