Friday, 02 October 2015 00:00

Protesting Big Pharma 'Death Sentence,' Cancer Patient Arrested Outside TPP Talks

Written by Jon Queally | Common Dreams

'For thousands of women to die unnecessary of breast cancer because of the TPP is a horrible, cruel, premeditated, and avoidable catastrophe.'

A cancer patient was arrested in Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday after allegedly "disrupting" the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in a protest aimed at maintaining access to affordable cancer medicines in the dozen countries, including the U.S. and Canada, that would be impacted by the colossal trade deal.

Video footage showed Zahara Heckscher—who was wearing a t-shirt that read "I Have Cancer. I Can't Wait Years" and holding a hospital drip pole that read "TPP: Don't Cut My IV"—being handcuffed and led away by police after she refused to leave an area within the Westin Hotel where trade ministers were holding the high-level and secretive talks.

Heckscher is part of a group of cancer patients and survivors who, alongside other healthcare advocates, have demanded the secret text of the TPP be released so they can verify that a final agreement would not include a "death sentence clause"—a proposal submitted by the U.S. delegation and included in earlier drafts that would see de facto monopolies on biological medicines extended for up to 8 years.

As she attempted to read a statement to gathered press in the hotel lobby, Heckscher refused to stop talking or leave the area:

According to Public Citizen, the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group that has raised rounded objections to the TPP and similar deal, Heckscher has been treated by biologicals including trastuzumab (Hercepin) and pertuzumab (Perjeta). She is currently undergoing chemotherapy as part of a clinical trial, the group explained, and continues on denosumab (Xgeva) treatment as well.

Speaking on her own behalf, Heckscher explained the protest by saying, "For thousands of women to die unnecessary of breast cancer because of the TPP is a horrible, cruel, premeditated, and avoidable catastrophe. The provisions being decided by TPP ministers today could allow drug monopolies on biologics for 8 years.  Some of these medicines cost up to tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars a year."    

She continued, "When you have breast cancer today, you can’t wait 8 years or 7 years or 6 years for a treatment to become available or affordable. When you have cancer, even a one-year delay in affordable medicine can be a death sentence. That is why we call this proposed provision of the TPP a 'death sentence clause.' If it passes, thousands of women like me will die waiting."

As the talks in Atlanta continue, Public Citizen warns that the issue of pharmaceutical monopolies and biologics has been largely absent from the public debate over the TPP, but should serve as a serious warning for the corporate-fueled agenda being pushed by U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and his negotiating team. According to the group:

The USTR has long pushed for increased marketing exclusivity periods for biologics – medical products derived from living organisms, including many new and forthcoming cancer treatments. Exclusivity means product monopolies, with no competition from generics or biosimilars; medicine prices in the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars per person; and the rationing of treatment access. Marketing exclusivity is separate from and independent of patent protection, though the protections may overlap. The USTR has supported an eight-year minimum monopoly period, while a majority bloc of negotiating countries will not consider more than five years’ exclusivity.

"This is a cynical rebranding of a failed negotiating position," said Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Global Access to Medicines program. "It represents the worst of secretive trade deals – a rule that has nothing to do with trade, but will lead to preventable suffering. You can put a suit and tie on this, but it still stinks. Non-U.S. TPP negotiators and trade ministers should continue standing strong against this USTR demand, because, despite the spin, five plus three still equals eight."

Link to original article from Common Dreams

Read 34400 times

Sen. Warren on TPP

TPP Calls

Feed not found.

Latest News

  • Trump administration's voter suppression attempts ahead of midterms are not only 'morally wrong,' they're illegal +

    Trump administration's voter suppression attempts ahead of midterms are not only 'morally wrong,' they're illegal Imagine going to the polls on Election Day and discovering that your ballot could be collected and reviewed by the Read More
  • ACLU Blueprints Offer Vision to Cut US Incarceration Rate in Half by Prioritizing 'People Over Prisons' +

    ACLU Blueprints Offer Vision to Cut US Incarceration Rate in Half by Prioritizing 'People Over Prisons' ACLU Blueprints Offer Vision to Cut US Incarceration Rate in Half by Prioritizing 'People Over Prisons' Read More
  • As Florence Makes Landfall, Poorest Once More Likely to Suffer Most From Storm's Destruction +

    As Florence Makes Landfall, Poorest Once More Likely to Suffer Most From Storm's Destruction "These disasters drag into the light exactly who is already being thrown away," notes Naomi Klein Read More
  • How about some good news? Kansas Democratic Representative advances bill for Native Peoples. +

    How about some good news? Kansas Democratic Representative advances bill for Native Peoples. How about some good news? Kansas Democratic Representative advances bill for Native Peoples. Read More
  • How One Dying Man Changed The Debate About The Tax Bill +

    How One Dying Man Changed The Debate About The Tax Bill What mattered was that he showed up — that he put himself in front of the people whose opinions on Read More
  • Democrats Just Won a Major Victory in Virginia +

    Democrats Just Won a Major Victory in Virginia On a night of Democratic victories, one of the most significant wins came in Virginia, where the party held onto Read More
  • Repealing the Jim Crow law that keeps 1.5 million Floridians from voting. +

    Repealing the Jim Crow law that keeps 1.5 million Floridians from voting. A seismic political battle that could send shockwaves all the way to the White House was launched last week in Read More
  • Nuclear Weapons: Who Pays, Who Profits? +

    Nuclear Weapons: Who Pays, Who Profits? In an interview with Reuters conducted a month after he took office, Donald Trump asserted that the U.S. had “fallen Read More
  • Sessions issues sweeping new criminal charging policy +

    Sessions issues sweeping new criminal charging policy Attorney General Jeff Sessions overturned the sweeping criminal charging policy of former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. and directed Read More
  • 1
  • 2

Featured TPP, TITIP and TISA News

  • Statement of Lori Wallach, Director, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch on the Demise of the Trans-Pacific Partnership in the Lame-Duck Session of Congress +

    Statement of Lori Wallach, Director, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch on the Demise of the Trans-Pacific Partnership in the Lame-Duck Session of Congress The news that the White House and Republican congressional leaders have given up on passing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is Read More
  • No, Trump Didn’t Kill the TPP — Progressives Did +

    No, Trump Didn’t Kill the TPP — Progressives Did If you read the headlines, Donald Trump’s election has killed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The headlines have it wrong. Read More
  • "It's About Letting Giant Corporations Rig the Rules": Warren Skewers TPP +

    Democratic senator from Massachusetts offers fresh criticism of trade deal in new video Read More
  • WTO Authorizes Over $1 Billion in Sanctions Unless U.S. Guts Popular Country-of-Origin Meat Labels, Disproving Obama Claim That Trade Pacts Can’t Undermine Public Interest Policies +

    WTO Authorizes Over $1 Billion in Sanctions Unless U.S. Guts Popular Country-of-Origin Meat Labels, Disproving Obama Claim That Trade Pacts Can’t Undermine Public Interest Policies Today’s World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling against the U.S. country-of-origin meat labels (COOL) that consumers rely on to make informed Read More
  • Trans-Pacific Partnership: Exporting U.S. Meat, Dairy, and Disease +

    Trans-Pacific Partnership: Exporting U.S. Meat, Dairy, and Disease Negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership—a trade agreement between 12 nations—ended earlier this week. The likely passage of the agreement means Read More
  • Protesting Big Pharma 'Death Sentence,' Cancer Patient Arrested Outside TPP Talks +

    Protesting Big Pharma 'Death Sentence,' Cancer Patient Arrested Outside TPP Talks 'For thousands of women to die unnecessary of breast cancer because of the TPP is a horrible, cruel, premeditated, and Read More
  • Obama trade agenda inches toward passage with Senate vote on ‘fast track’ +

    Obama trade agenda inches toward passage with Senate vote on ‘fast track’ A razor-thin Senate vote Tuesday put President Obama on the cusp of claiming victory for his ambitious international trade agenda, Read More
  • Fast Track Down +

    Fast Track Down The Fast Track trade authority package was rejected Friday because two years of effort by a vast corporate coalition, the Read More
  • Shock: Congress Plots to Pay for Reviled TPP Deal by Raiding Medicare +

    Shock: Congress Plots to Pay for Reviled TPP Deal by Raiding Medicare It just doesn't get more cynical than this. Note that we're talking about a bipartisan trade deal, thanks to 14 Read More
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3

Put Trade in the Spotlight

CWA devised a simple plan for which they were united suited: drag TPP out of the shadows and into the light - one city at a time - using a medium they understand intimately: Daily Newspapers!

Two CWA members - Dave Felice in Denver, CO and Madelyn Elder in Portland, OR have started the ball rolling. We just need to keep up the momentum.

Button-ShareTPPWithNewspaper