From: Michael Perelman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
How can you defeat an alliance of Christian fundamentalists and the drug companies?
[Or for that matter, how do you defeat an alliance of drug companies and free-trade advocates?]
Trade Pact May Undercut Inexpensive Drug Imports
By ELIZABETH BECKER and ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON, July 11 � Congress is poised to approve an international trade agreement that could have the effect of thwarting a goal pursued by many lawmakers of both parties: the import of inexpensive prescription drugs to help millions of Americans without health insurance.
The agreement, negotiated with Australia by the Bush administration, would allow pharmaceutical companies to prevent imports of drugs to the United States and also to challenge decisions by Australia about what drugs should be covered by the country's health plan, the prices paid for them and how they can be used.
It represents the administration's model for strengthening the protection of expensive brand-name drugs in wealthy countries, where the biggest profits can be made.
In negotiating the pact, the United States, for the first time, challenged how a foreign industrialized country operates its national health program to provide inexpensive drugs to its own citizens. Americans without insurance pay some of the world's highest prices for brand-name prescription drugs, in part because the United States does not have such a plan.
Only in the last few weeks have lawmakers realized that the proposed Australia trade agreement � the Bush administration's first free trade agreement with a developed country � could have major implications for health policy and programs in the United States. ...
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/12/politics/12DRUGready.html>
Carl
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