Bulletin N° 698

 

  

Subject: GLOBAL CLASS STRUGGLE IN SPRING 2016 (ANALYTICAL THOUGHT vs. DIALECTICAL THINKING).

 

21 May 2016
Grenoble, France

 

 

Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,

Corporate state capitalism is upon us, and the various modes of social control are quite evident to specific populations inhabiting the different pockets of this worn-out system. I recently directed some graduate-student research on US policy in Haiti, and the 1967 movie The Comedians, based on the award-winning  1966 Graham Greene novel by the same name, served to dramatize the phenomenon of the “slave mentality” and how it was constructed in the society at large. There is no better description of this in contemporary American society than in Mark Ames’ remarkable book, Going Postal, in which he observes:

 

even when people are completely aware of their misery and sense of injustice, even when their health declines; when their

spouses suffer and their marriages fall apart, they still accept even the most wretched arrangements, soothed only by their private,

anonymous grumblings.(p.108)

 

The incredible accumulation of wealth and political power today in the hands of a smaller and smaller number of figures around the world, plus the amazing technology this small class of rulers now has at their disposal, is nothing less than awesome. Class struggle in this contemporary context is by no means an automatic response to class domination. Reaching into human cognitive abilities, corporate capitalist interests are proscriptive, not descriptive; they direct our attention away from our real class-conscious needs for decisive action and place us instead on a path to our own destruction by providing us with an acceptable modus vivendi with which we can rationalize our passive “go along and get along” strategy for living . . . until the end.

 

 

The 14 items below suggest willful alternatives to the obeisant life style that corporate society offers us. The objective of this selection is to provoke thought, to encourage CEIMSA readers to ask the question: Are you doing what you really want to do;  is it really necessary to continue in the direction you are now being moved?

 

 

Sincerely,

Francis Feeley

Professor of American Studies

University of Grenoble-3

Director of Research

University of Paris-Nanterre

Center for the Advanced Study of American Institutions and Social Movements

The University of California-San Diego

http://www.ceimsa.org  

 

 

a.

Fight Club

This film depicts the alienation of a ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channelling primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until an eccentric gets in the way and ignites an out-of-control spiral toward oblivion.

 

https://genvideos.org/watch?v=Fight_Club_1999#video=HfIAV4JSOs4ipnkGcEaklUacvtRi4AGPmdzh1qVL7Gs

or

http://niter.co/all/movies/1192709-fight-club

Release: 1999 /

Director: David Fincher

 

Adapted from: Fight Club

 

Screenplay: Jim Uhls

 

Story by: Chuck Palahniuk

 

+

Falling Down

http://image4.putlocker.is/images/arrow.gif

http://putlocker.is/watch-falling-down-online-free-putlocker.html

Release: 1993 /

Falling Down

http://image4.putlocker.is/images/arrow.gif

Genre: Crime | Drama | Thriller

http://image4.putlocker.is/images/arrow.gif

Director: Joel Schumacher

http://image4.putlocker.is/images/arrow.gif

Stars: Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall, Barbara Hershey

http://image4.putlocker.is/images/arrow.gif

Synopsis: William (D-FENS) just wants to get home to see his daughter on her birthday. Unfortunately, nothing seems to be going right for him. First there's the traffic jam, then the unhelpful Korean shopkeeper who "doesn't give change". D-FENS begins to crack and starts to fight back against the every day "injustices" he encounters on his journey home. The film has a story running in parallel about a desk-bound cop who is about to retire. He's retiring for his wife's sake, and obviously isn't happy about it. The cop tracks down D-FENS and in the final scene.....

 

===========

 

b.

 

Zionism Begins to Unravel

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44708.htm

by Lawrence Davidson

 

===========

 

c.

Sanders and Class Struggle

in the Democratic Party

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=16363

 

===========

 

d.

Republicans Would Rather Lose the 2016 Election

than Win with Donald Trump

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=16337
Glen Ford of the Black Agenda Report says Trump's candidacy is throwing both Democratic and Republican parties into crisis

 

===========

 

e.

On the Side of the Road

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=16330
The acclaimed film by Lia Tarachansky about those who fought to erase Palestine and created an Israeli landscape of denial

 

===========

 

f.

As Palestinians Mourn Their Nakba, the UK Must Acknowledge its Responsibility

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/15/palestinians-nakba-uk-balfour-declaration-dispossession

by Ahmad Samih Khalidi

 

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/nakba.jpg

Today marks the 68th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe): the Palestinians’ dispossession

and the loss of their homeland.

 

===========

 

 

g.

From: Edward S Herman
Subject: The Israel lobby and the European Union

 

Francis,

a very valuable study.

ed herman

 

The Israel lobby and the European Union
http://europalforum.org.uk/en/uploads/upload_center/kH1JNtI1qm1q.pdf

New detailed report shows how racist Zionists work at high levels in Brussels and beyond. 700 footnotes/references.
Organizations fund the European "Friends of Israel" and other pro-Israel enterprises like settlements, Birthright tours, etc. David Horowitz Foundation,

Henry Jackson Foundation along with the Adelmans, etc.

===========

 

h.

The USA: How To Make Them Give A Damn?

http://journal-neo.org/2016/05/12/the-usa-how-to-make-them-give-a-damn/

by Christopher Black

It is clear that the “terrorists” the world is facing are U.S. proxy forces attempting to destabilise the word for American interests.

 

===========

 

i.

From: "Jim O'Brien" <jimobrien48@gmail.com>
Subject: [haw-info] HAW Notes 5/18/16: Links to recent articles of interest

 



Links to Recent Articles of Interest



"Hiroshima and History"

 By Alexis DuddenLobeLog, posted May 17

The author teaches history at the University of Connecticut.



"Explainer: What Is the 100-Year-Old Sykes-Picot Agreement?"

By Stephen Pascoe, The Conversation, posted May 12

The author is a PhD candidate in history at La Trobe University.



"The Costs of Violence: Masters of Mankind (Part 2)"
 
By Noam Chomsky, TomDispatch.com, posted May 10



"American Power under Challenge: Masters of Mankind (Part 1)"

 By Noam Chomsky, TomDispatch.com, posted May 8



"American Imperium: Untangling Truth and Fiction in an Age of Perpetual War"

 By Andrew J. Bacevich, Harper's Magazine, May issue

The author is a professor emeritus of history and international relations at Boston University.



"Three Centuries of US Writings Against Wars"

By David Swanson, Let's Try Democracy blog, posted May 4



"How the Curse of Sykes-Picot Still Haunts the Middle East"

By Robin Wright, The New Yorker, posted April 30



"Trump's Foreign Policy is Just GOP Boilerplate, Only More Confused"

By Juan Cole, Informed Comment blog, posted April 28

 

Suggestions for these occasional lists can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com. Thanks to an anonymous reader for suggesting some of the articles included in the above list.

===========

 

j.

Intellectual Property Health Digest, Vol. 73, Issue 10

 

May 14, 2016

 

Today's Topics:

  1. Re: India - Cabinet approves National Intellectual      Property Rights Policy (Mohga Kamal-Yanni)
  2. U.S.'s Newest IP Gunship Diplomacy in Columbia - Same Threats with Dollars not Bullets (Baker, Brook)
  3. TTIP dead?? (George Carter)
  4. Re: India - Cabinet approves National Intellectual      Property Rights Policy (Michael H Davis)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Message: 1
From: Mohga Kamal-Yanni <mkamalyanni@Oxfam.org.uk>
To: IP-health <ip-health@lists.keionline.org>
Subject: Re: [Ip-health] India - Cabinet approves National Intellectual Property Rights Policy


Link to India's new IP policy
http://dipp.gov.in/English/Schemes/Intellectual_Property_Rights/National_IPR_Policy_12.05.2016.pdf

 


Statement -Press Information Bureau, Government of India- Cabinet approves National Intellectual Property Rights Policy (http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx).

 

The Union Cabinet yesterday approved the National Intellectual Property 
Rights (IPR) Policy that will lay the future roadmap for intellectual 
property in India. The Policy recognises the abundance of creative and 
innovative energies that flow in India, and the need to tap into and 
channelise these energies towards a better and brighter future for all.

 

The National IPR Policy is a vision document that aims to create and 
exploit synergies between all forms of intellectual property (IP),
concerned statutes and agencies. It sets in place an institutional 
mechanism for implementation, monitoring and review. It aims to 
incorporate and adapt global best practices to the Indian scenario. This 
policy shall weave in the strengths of the Government, research and 
development organizations, educational institutions, corporate entities 
including MSMEs, start-ups and other stakeholders in the creation of an 
innovation-conducive environment, which stimulates creativity and 
innovation across sectors, as also facilitates a stable, transparent and 
service-oriented IPR administration in the country.

 

The Policy recognizes that India has a well-established TRIPS-compliant 
legislative, administrative and judicial framework to safeguard IPRs, 
which meets its international obligations while utilizing the 
flexibilities provided in the international regime to address its 
developmental concerns. It reiterates India?s commitment to the Doha 
Development Agenda and the TRIPS agreement.

 

While IPRs are becoming increasingly important in the global arena, there 
is a need to increase awareness on IPRs in India, be it regarding the IPRs 
owned by oneself or respect for others? IPRs. The importance of IPRs as a 
marketable financial asset and economic tool also needs to be recognised
For this, domestic IP filings, as also commercialization of patents 
granted, need to increase. Innovation and sub-optimal spending on R&D too 
are issues to be addressed.

 

The broad contours of the National IPR Policy are as follows:

 

Vision Statement: An India where creativity and innovation are stimulated 
by Intellectual Property for the benefit of all; an India where 
intellectual property promotes advancement in science and technology, arts 
and culture, traditional knowledge and biodiversity resources; an India 
where knowledge is the main driver of development, and knowledge owned is 
transformed into knowledge shared.

 

Mission Statement:
Stimulate a dynamic, vibrant and balanced intellectual property rights 
system in India to:

 

o   foster creativity and innovation and thereby, promote entrepreneurship 
and enhance socio-economic and cultural development, and

 

o   focus on enhancing access to healthcare, food security and 
environmental protection, among other sectors of vital social, economic 
and technological importance.

 


Objectives:

 

The Policy lays down the following seven objectives:

 

i. IPR Awareness: Outreach and Promotion - To create public awareness 
about the economic, social and cultural benefits of IPRs
among all sections of society.

 

ii. Generation of IPRs - To stimulate the generation of IPRs.

 

iii. Legal and Legislative Framework - To have strong and effective IPR 
laws, which balance the interests of rights owners with
larger public interest.

 

iv. Administration and Management - To modernize and strengthen 
service-oriented IPR administration.

 

v. Commercialization of IPRs - Get value for IPRs through 
commercialization.

 

vi. Enforcement and Adjudication - To strengthen the enforcement and 
adjudicatory mechanisms for combating IPR infringements.

 

vii. Human Capital Development - To strengthen and expand human resources, 
institutions and capacities for teaching, training,
research and skill building in IPRs.

 

These objectives are sought to be achieved through detailed action points. 
The action by different Ministries/ Departments shall be monitored by DIPP 
which shall be the nodal department to coordinate, guide and oversee 
implementation and future development of IPRs in India.

 

 

------------------------------

 

Message: 2
From: "Baker, Brook" <b.baker@neu.edu>
To: IP-health <ip-health@lists.keionline.org>
Subject: [Ip-health]
U.S.'s Newest IP Gunship Diplomacy in Columbia - Same Threats with Dollars not Bullets

“U.S.'s Newest IP Gunship Diplomacy in Columbia - Same Threats with Dollars not Bullets”
Prof. Brook K. Baker, Senior Policy Analyst, Health GAP
May 13, 2016

 

It used to be that when the U.S. wanted to exert its influence or extend the imperial power of its businesses in Latin America, it would resort to gunships.  In the old days, the raw use of naked armed power needed little justification. In the more modern era of proxy wars, the U.S. Is more likely to send money and arms, as it has done consistently with Columbia for its War on Drug.  The latest tranche of funding for Columbia, designed to enable peace talks - if you will a cease-fire in the War on Drugs, is the $450 million Paz Columbia proposal before Congress.

 

One would think that the rationale for a peace process in Columbia that might dampen the flow of illegal drug to the U.S. is strong and that funding for this effort can be ring fenced and justified on its own account.  But not in the world of topsy turvy politics in Washington where the special interests of Big Pharma trump even priority peace initiatives.  Why is Pharma involved in Paz Columbia and why has the U.S. manned the battle stations?  Because Columbia has deigned to discuss issuing a compulsory license to stop being robbed by a Swiss pharmaceutical company, Novartis, on the cost of a highly effective, but grossly overpriced leukemia medicine, Gleveec.

 

This is how lobbying and gunship diplomacy work in tandem on Pharma's behalf.

 

 *   Novartis, even though a foreign company, contacts its proxy in the U.S., the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.  Novartis says, "Our monopoly pricing is being threatened in Columbia, and you should be concerned because it could happen to your membership too."  PhRMA in turn contacts the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to line up support from other IP-intensive industry groups.
 *   PhRMA and Chamber of Commerce lobbyists march with briefcases to the Office of the United States Trade Representative for years  where they have totally captured its trade agenda (more pharma lobbyists for the USTR than for the Food and Drug Administration).   The USTR consistently pursues stronger and longer IP monopolies and greater IP enforcement policies even as it simultaneously threatens and pressures any country that does not accept Big Pharma's monopoly control.  It jumps into action for Novartis.
 *   PhRMA and the Chamber of Congress also contribute campaign funds to key Members of Congress, most especially chairs of key committees, like Orin Hatch who heads up the Senate Finance Committee.  When Columbia threatens to issue a compulsory license to allow generic versions of Novartis's medicines, PhRMA lobbyists go straight to the top and ask Senator Hatch to appoint one of his key staffers to put pressure on Columbia.
 *   The USTR and the Congressional staffer, in this case Everett Eissenstat, both goes to the Columbia's embassy in Washington and make identical threats:  (1) our unhappy PhRMA and Chamber of Congress will threaten Paz Columbia funding if Columbia does not drop its compulsory licensing threat and (2) trade retaliation threats from the U.S. will escalate and you may be blocked from entering other regional trade deals with the U.S., including the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.
 *   The Columbia embassy in Washington contacts Columbia officials in Bogota, warning that Columbia should stand down from its threatened compulsory license and continue to allow Novartis to charge whatever it wants.
 *   (In the future, Senator Hatch gets more PhRMA donations and members of his staff and former USTR officials become highly paid industry lobbyists.)

 

In this world of Big Pharma acting as the puppeteer and ordering U.S. officials to do its bidding with escalating threats of economic and trade reprisals, it doesn't matter that it is completely lawful under international law, Columbia's trade agreement with the U.S., and its own national law that Columbia might issue a compulsory license.  That right is enshrined in the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, in the 2001 Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, and in the US-Columbia Trade Promotion Authority Agreement.  The argument of the USTR and Mr. Eissenstat that there needs to be special justifications for issuing a compulsory license is totally false - and they know it.

 

These backdoor pressures and economic threats are just as dangerous as gunships sitting in a harbor.  And they can be just a deadly - cannon balls blow up people, but lack of access to affordable life-saving medicines commits people with cancer to needlessly short lives of suffering and misery as well.

 


------------------------------

 

Message: 3
From: George Carter <fiar@verizon.net>
To: ip-health <ip-health@lists.keionline.org>
Subject: [Ip-health] TTIP dead??

Hallelujah! But I never discount the capacity of industry to trump democracy, let alone human life and the planet’s ecosystems to assure more PROFITS.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/03/ttip-has-been-kicked-into-the-long-grass-for-a-very-long-time?CMP=share_btn_tw

George M. Carter

 

 

 

------------------------------

 

Message: 4
From: Michael H Davis <m.davis@csuohio.edu>
To: IP-health <ip-health@lists.keionline.org>
Subject: [Ip-health] India - Cabinet approves National Intellectual Property Rights Policy.

 

India should first survey the literature and decide whether ip actually produces any social good. It won't find any good studies that say so. So why pass this, why increase ip, and why increase enforcement of a socially harmful phenomenon?

 

 

 


Link to India's new IP policy
http://dipp.gov.in/English/Schemes/Intellectual_Property_Rights/National_IPR_Policy_12.05.2016.pdf

 


Statement - Press Information Bureau, Government of India- Cabinet approves National Intellectual Property Rights Policy (http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx)  

 

The Union Cabinet yesterday approved the National Intellectual Property
Rights (IPR) Policy that will lay the future roadmap for intellectual
property in India. The Policy recognises the abundance of creative and
innovative energies that flow in India, and the need to tap into and
channelise these energies towards a better and brighter future for all.

 

The National IPR Policy is a vision document that aims to create and
exploit synergies between all forms of intellectual property (IP),
concerned statutes and agencies. It sets in place an institutional
mechanism for implementation, monitoring and review. It aims to
incorporate and adapt global best practices to the Indian scenario. This
policy shall weave in the strengths of the Government, research and
development organizations, educational institutions, corporate entities
including MSMEs, start-ups and other stakeholders in the creation of an
innovation-conducive environment, which stimulates creativity and
innovation across sectors, as also facilitates a stable, transparent and
service-oriented IPR administration in the country.

 

The Policy recognizes that India has a well-established TRIPS-compliant
legislative, administrative and judicial framework to safeguard IPRs,
which meets its international obligations while utilizing the
flexibilities provided in the international regime to address its
developmental concerns. It reiterates India?s commitment to the Doha
Development Agenda and the TRIPS agreement.

 

While IPRs are becoming increasingly important in the global arena, there
is a need to increase awareness on IPRs in India, be it regarding the IPRs
owned by oneself or respect for others? IPRs. The importance of IPRs as a
marketable financial asset and economic tool also needs to be recognised.
For this, domestic IP filings, as also commercialization of patents
granted, need to increase. Innovation and sub-optimal spending on R&D too
are issues to be addressed.

 

The broad contours of the National IPR Policy are as follows:

 

Vision Statement: An India where creativity and innovation are stimulated
by Intellectual Property for the benefit of all; an India where
intellectual property promotes advancement in science and technology, arts
and culture, traditional knowledge and biodiversity resources; an India
where knowledge is the main driver of development, and knowledge owned is
transformed into knowledge shared.

 

Mission Statement:
Stimulate a dynamic, vibrant and balanced intellectual property rights
system in India to:

 

o   foster creativity and innovation and thereby, promote entrepreneurship
and enhance socio-economic and cultural development, and

 

o   focus on enhancing access to healthcare, food security and
environmental protection, among other sectors of vital social, economic
and technological importance.

 


Objectives:

 

The Policy lays down the following seven objectives:

 

i. IPR Awareness: Outreach and Promotion - To create public awareness
about the economic, social and cultural benefits of IPRs
among all sections of society.

 

ii. Generation of IPRs - To stimulate the generation of IPRs.

 

iii. Legal and Legislative Framework - To have strong and effective IPR
laws, which balance the interests of rights owners with
larger public interest.

 

iv. Administration and Management - To modernize and strengthen
service-oriented IPR administration.

 

v. Commercialization of IPRs - Get value for IPRs through
commercialization.

 

vi. Enforcement and Adjudication - To strengthen the enforcement and
adjudicatory mechanisms for combating IPR infringements.

 

vii. Human Capital Development - To strengthen and expand human resources,
institutions and capacities for teaching, training,
research and skill building in IPRs.

 

These objectives are sought to be achieved through detailed action points.
The action by different Ministries/ Departments shall be monitored by DIPP
which shall be the nodal department to coordinate, guide and oversee
implementation and future development of IPRs in India.

 

===========

 

k.

Putin: The U.S. Could Be Conspiring Against Us

Video
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44655.htm
President Putin believes in the active theory of 'containment' of Russia, when it comes to Western foreign policy. Washington is a Printing Machine of Fiat Money.

 

===========

 

l.

Dilma Out: Brazilian Plutocracy Sets 54 Million Votes On Fire

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/342821-brazil-dilma-rousseff-impeachment/

by Pepe Escobar

 

===========

 

m.

From: Edward S Herman
Subject: The Coming Democratic Crackup

 

One of the best sources of information on current events.

 

Consortiumnews.com


Exclusive: Though the mainstream media is focused on Republican divisions, a more important story could be the coming Democratic crackup, as anti-war Democrats resist Hillary Clinton’s pro-war agenda, writes Robert Parry.

https://consortiumnews.com/2016/05/16/the-coming-democratic-crackup/

While there, read other stories at  

https://consortiumnews.com/, including:

Seeing Humanity in 'Enemy' States by Matthew Hoh

Inciting Iran's 'Bad Behavior' by Paul R. Pillar

Russia's Diversity of Opinion by Gilbert Doctorow

Refugees from 'Endless' War by Ann Wright

If you want to continue reading perceptive articles by the many talented writers who appear at Consortiumnews.com, please consider a tax-deductible donation to keep our Web site going, now 20 years strong.

You can make a donation by 

credit card online

or by

mailing a check

to:

Consortium for Independent Journalism (CIJ)
Suite 102-231
2200 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington VA 22201

(For readers wanting to use PayPal, you can address contributions to our account, which is named "consortnew@aol.com").

CIJ is a 501-c-3 tax-exempt organization, so your donations may be tax-deductible in the United States. (You also can direct donations to us through your company's charitible-giving programs.)

(If you have trouble with this automatic unsubscribe feature, please make your request to be taken off the list to us directly at consortnew@aol.com and we'll take care of it by hand.)

http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/TrackImage?key=3573590436

===========

 

n.

Intellectual Property Health Digest, Vol. 73, Issue 11

 

May 16, 2016


Today's Topics:
  1. Sign-on for Colombia until 3pm hour Bogota
Monday (Peter Maybarduk)
  2. Re: India - Cabinet approves National Intellectual Property Rights Policy (George Carter)
  3. Blackmail -What is better: Silver gringos or the lives of thousands of people? (Jamie Love)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1

Date: Mon, 16 May 2016 02:44:16 +0000
From: Peter Maybarduk <pmaybarduk@citizen.org>
Subject: [Ip-health] Sign-on for Colombia until 3pm hour Bogota Monday

Colleagues,
We will accept signatures in support of this letter until 3pm Bogota / 10pm Geneva time, Monday (that's probably today for most of you reading). We are up to 105 signatories so far.
Thank you, -Peter

---
Mr. President
JUAN MANUEL SANTOS
President of the Republic of Colombia

SUBJECT: Colombia’s Right to Issue a Compulsory License for the Cancer Medicine Imatinib

Dear President Santos,

We are lawyers, academics and other experts specializing in fields including intellectual property, trade and health, writing to affirm that international law and policy support Colombia?s right to issue compulsory licenses on patents in order to promote public interests including access to affordable medicines.?

Colombia’s Ministry of Health and Social Protection has proposed to declare access to the cancer medicine imatinib under competitive conditions to be a matter of public interest. A public interest declaration should lead to the grant of a compulsory license on a patent held by Novartis, facilitating generic competition and reducing prices. We encourage your administration, the Ministry of Health and the Superintendency of Industry and Trade to proceed with the public interest declaration.

Recent media reports suggest that staff for the U.S. Senate Finance Committee and potentially representatives of the U.S. government may have communicated incorrect beliefs about compulsory licensing to their Colombian counterparts.[1] If the reports are accurate, those officials have acted inappropriately, and contravened U.S. government policy, which supports trading partners’ rights to issue compulsory licenses.? We condemn any pressure levied against Colombia for its use of lawful policies such as compulsory licensing to promote public health.

Article 31 of the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (WTO?s TRIPS) permits all WTO members, including Colombia, to issue compulsory licenses at any time on grounds of their choosing[2]. The only compensation due to patent-holders in instances of compulsory licensing is a reasonable royalty, which governments may determine at their discretion[3].

The WTO?s Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health affirms this interpretation of Article 31 and its importance to health.[4] The ?Doha Declaration? explicitly recognizes the impact of intellectual property on medicine prices and states that countries? patent obligations under WTO rules ?should be interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of WTO members’ right to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all.?

The issuance of a compulsory license on imatinib is entirely consistent with the terms of trade and investment agreements to which Colombia is a party.[5] The U.S. ?May 10th Agreement? of 2007, for example, expressly incorporated certain public health safeguards in the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement and preserved Colombia’s right to issue licenses for patented inventions.

High prices for any important medicine impose a burden on the public health system responsible for providing it, and lead to the rationing of treatment and other health services. When a pharmaceutical company uses a patent to exclude competition, it can charge much higher prices.??

A recent report by Colombia?s Ministry of Health and Social Protection specifies considerable predicted cost savings through a compulsory license for imatinib.[6] The report of the ministry?s Technical Committee for the Public Interest Declaration states:

"...The impact on health system financing of only a single manufacturer supplying imatinib in the market is important. Additionally, prices of Glivec, despite being subject to controls, are still very high compared with generics, which have been progressively leaving the market with the grant of the patent. Direct price controls ? will never match the results achieved by competition in the market. Without a doubt, the best way to reduce prices is competition."

Novartis has rejected the Colombian government’s offer to negotiate a price reduction for imatinib.

Issuing a compulsory license does not expropriate the property rights of the patent holder. Rather, the right of a government to authorize other uses of a patented invention is embedded and reserved in the grant of a patent. Furthermore, a license does not prevent the patent holder from continuing to sell its product, prohibit non-licensed uses of the invention, or prohibit non-licensed parties from using the invention.??

We hope this letter will support Colombia?s ongoing efforts to increase access to affordable medicines and put to rest any concerns regarding the international legitimacy of compulsory licensing.? Compulsory licensing is a key tool for protecting the financial stability of health systems and ensuring access to medicines and health services for all.

Sincerely,


[1] See http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/salud/presiones-de-eeuu-colombia-no-regule-el-precio-del-imat-articulo-631535 and http://keionline.org/node/2504.
[1] Available at:? www.wto.org/spanish/docs_s/legal_s/27-trips_04c_s.htm. See also World Trade Organization, ?TRIPS and Health: Frequently Asked Questions,? available at: https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/public_health_faq_e.htm.
[1] Id. Art 31 (h)
[1] World Trade Organization Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, adopted 14 November 2001, available at:? https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/minist_e/min01_e/mindecl_trips_e.htm.
[1] E.g. Colombia-USA Trade Promotion Agreement, Article 10.7: Expropriation and Indemnification, available at: http://www.sice.oas.org/Trade/COL_USA_TPA_s/Text_s.asp#a107;? Colombia-EFTA States Free Trade Agreement, Article 6.2, Basic Principles, available at: http://www.efta.int/media/documents/legal-texts/free-trade-relations/colombia/EFTA-Colombia%20Free%20Trade%20Agreement%20SP.pdf.
[1] Informe sobre la recomendacio?n al Ministro de Salud y Proteccio?n Social en relacio?n con la solicitud de declaratoria de intere?s pu?blico del imatinib con fines de licencia obligatoria. Ministerio de Salud y Proteccio?n Social, Comite? Te?cnico Declaratoria de intere?s pu?blico.Bogota?, Colombia 24 de febrero de 2016 . Available at: https://www.minsalud.gov.co/sites/rid/Lists/BibliotecaDigital/RIDE/VS/MET/informecomiteimatinib-22022016-vf.pdf.


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Message: 2
Date: Sat, 14 May 2016 11:48:25 -0400
From: George Carter <fiar@verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Ip-health] India - Cabinet approves National Intellectual Property Rights Policy.


India should first survey the literature and decide whether it actually produces any social good. It won't find any good studies that say so. So why pass this, why increase ip, and why increase enforcement of a socially harmful phenomenon?


Money. Threats by the belligerent bastard, USTR Froman and the government. Modi?s obsequious greed; he probably thinks he can play it both ways and make more money, even while screwing his own country’s generics industry.

Utter indifference to the sick because power and money, kowtowing and cruelty are what define our species as we head rapidly toward self-inflicted extinction.
George M. Carter

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Message: 3
Date: Mon, 16 May 2016 13:08:32 -0400
From: Jamie Love <james.love@keionline.org>
Subject: [Ip-health] Blackmail -What is better: Silver gringos or the lives of thousands of people?

This is how Google translates today's El Tiempo op-ed by Paola Ochoa

http://www.eltiempo.com/opinion/columnistas/chantaje-paola-ochoa-columnista-el-tiempo/16593982


Blackmail -What is better: Silver gringos or the lives of thousands of people?
by Paola Ochoa
May 16, 2016

It is the universal rule of Uncle Sam: no free lunch. While Kerry met with
Santos in London to express their support for the peace process in the US
Congress blackmailing our country vulgar: o the price of the main drug
against cancer or 450 million dollars left still Colombia gringa helps run
the risk of evaporating.

A threat that came to light last Thursday, when 'The Huffington Post'
leaked an internal memo from the Colombian Foreign Ministry: "Given the
direct relationship between a significant group of congressmen with the
pharmaceutical industry in the US. UU., Glivec case is likely to escalate
to the point of creating a downside to the approval of the resources of the
new initiative called Peace Colombia ". (See memo).

It is not any bullshit. Glivec is the main drug to fight leukemia in
Colombia. The proposal by Health Minister Alejandro Gaviria, is to lower
its price in half. And the reason is elementary: the price is sky and
bleeding the national health system. But the multinational Novartis refuses
to lower the price of retrechera way and therefore went to make 'lobby' in
the gringo Congress historically given to the interests of the
pharmaceutical.

How will the so huge power of this industry that the three candidates in
the run for the White House all agree on this issue. Hillary Clinton,
Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have spoken in this campaign of brutality
and greed of the pharmaceutical industry and how it has taken over the US
Congress. That and the arms industry are the two great 'lobbyists' in
Washington.


[Illustration: Juan Felipe Sanmiguel.]

Colombia already has personally suffered in the past. This happened in the
previous decade, when the US Congress approved the extension of tariff
preferences United States to Colombian products. Blackmail was igualito to
now: or we gave more gabelas pharmaceutical multinationals, or no more
ATPDEA for Colombia. The same happened with the FTA negotiations: o
endurec?amos rules on protection of drug patents -in detriment of generics
drugs or had not Free Trade Agreement. Nice kneepads that we have!

America has always made the same cuentico: that of intellectual property
and the alleged drug patent protection. But I wonder if there are more
important 450 million dollars Paz Colombia that the lives of thousands of
Colombians who die each year from leukemia inability to access the high
price of primary drug for such a tragedy.

There are painted the gringos. Always giving us silver on the one hand to
charge more by the other.
So it has been with the disinterested 'help' Plan
Colombia: 10,000 million dollars we pay them with the purchase of tons of
weapons, hundreds of planes and helicopters to US companies. Not to mention
the dozens of telephone equipment and interceptions, millions of dollars in
herbicides for spraying blessed and a long list of advice and consultancy
with American cooperation agencies.

No free lunch, says Uncle Sam. But to me it seems absurd that in Colombia
we prefer to change a few dollars for the lives of millions of people. Life
is priceless.

PAOLA OCHOA
@PaolaOchoaAmaya


--
James Love.  Knowledge Ecology International
http://www.keionline.org/donate.html
KEI DC tel: +1.202.332.2670, US Mobile: +1.202.361.3040, Geneva Mobile:
+41.76.413.6584, twitter.com/jamie_love

End of Ip-health Digest, Vol 73, Issue 11
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