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| Michael W. Michalak, former Ambassador to Vietnam, pressured Vietnam on behalf of PhRMA. |
Cables recently published by Wikileaks illustrate the degree to which the U.S. has been engaged in writing laws and training judges and government officials in Vietnam, on a wide range of pharmaceutical and intellectual property issues.
USTR has released its new White Paper on Access to Medicine. Here is the press release. A copy of the White Paper is available here:
Last year the USPTO announced the award of $4 million in fy 2009 grants to advise developing couintries on intellectual property policies. The first set of grants were done under Arti Rai, then Administrator for External Affairs at USTPO. The grants went to a variety on pro-right owner groups, including those associated with Newt Gingrich and the Tea Party, and several supported by firms like Pfizer and Microsoft. Seven of the groups receiving the fy 2009 have in common the fact they received funding from either Microsoft or the Gates Foundation.
September 6, 2011
KEI staff review of Wikileaks cables (/wikileaks)
Feb 28, 2003 | Turkey | Consulate Istanbul | Differences Among U.s. Firms Give Rise To New Association Of Research-based Pharmaceutical Companies
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From KEI staff review of Wikileaks cables (/wikileaks)
This cable signed by US Ambassador to Poland Victor H. Ashe provides a through and very tough critique of PhRMA’s submission to the 2009 Special 301 list. Ashe rejects every one of PhRMA’s main points, and explains why continually putting Poland on the Special 301 list is counter productive.
This July 9, 2008 cable concerns the collaboration between the US government and the pharmaceutical industry to lobby Finland on the pricing of pharmaceutical drugs. The cable was written by Michael A Butler, then the Deputy Chief of Mission in Helsinki, and is worth a read. Among other things, the cable says :
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| Ambassador Clifford Sobel (photo from Wikimedia) |
Wikileaks has published 28 cables, dated July 13, 2004 to February 9, 2010, from the US Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand that mention pharmaceuticals (See list here: /node/1231)
One of the cables discusses in detail the efforts of the New Zealand government to prevent pharmaceutical products that are sold in New Zealand from being parallel traded into the U.S. market. There are several interesting points made in the cable. Here are a few highlights:
From KEI staff review of Wikileaks cables (/wikileaks)
From September 19, 2005 to January 15, 2010, the US Department of State sent dozens of cables from Manila reporting on disputes in the Philippines regarding IPR and the pricing of pharmaceutical drugs. Much of the U.S. advocacy in the Philippines was done in close cooperation with Pfizer.
September 2, 2011
From KEI staff review of Wikileaks cables (/wikileaks)
On August 30, 2011, Wikileaks published a December 19, 2005 cable written by Daniel Rubinstein. The cable illustrates the degree to which the U.S. Department of State monitors the implementation of the Jordan-US FTA agreement, as regards disputes over rules on data exclusivity.