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Big Pharma Revealed As Puppetmaster Behind TPP Secrecy
It is no secret that US healthcare corporations have been among, if not the biggest beneficiaries of Obamacare: by "socializing" costs and spreading the reimbursement pool over the entire population in the form of a tax, pharmaceutical companies have been able to boost medical product and service costs to unprecedented levels with the help of complicit insurance companies who have subsequently passed through these costs to the consumer, in the process sending the price of biotech and pharma stocks to levels not seen since the dot com bubble.
But when it came to the highly confidential TPP, it was unclear just which corporations were dominant in pulling the strings.
Now thanks to more documents published by Wikileaks, and analyzed by the NYT, it appears that "big pharma" is once again pulling the strings, this time of the Trans Pacific Partnership, which if passed will "empower big pharmaceutical firms to command higher reimbursement rates in the United States and abroad, at the expense of consumers" according to "public health professionals, generic-drug makers and activists opposed to the trade deal."
In other words, just like the narrowly-passed Obamacare was a gift for big Pharma, so America's legal drug dealers are now trying to go for another price boosting catalyst, one which however will involve not just the US but some 12 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Worst of all, the negotiations for the next price increase is taking place in utmost secrecy where "American negotiators are still pressing participating governments to open the process that sets reimbursement rates for drugs and medical devices."
As RT notes, the latest disclosure links the Healthcare Annex to the secret draft of the quite aptly-named "Transparency" Chapter of the TPP, along with each country's negotiating position. The leaked "Annex on transparency and procedural fairness for pharmaceutical products and medical devices" is dated from December 2014, with the draft being restricted from release for four years after the passage of the TPP into law.
RELEASE: TPP Transparency Chapter Healthcare Annex https://t.co/jc4hYqh06V #TPP #TTIP #TISA pic.twitter.com/xIlO4QCUu6
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 10, 2015
Worse, while in the US the rising healthcare costs are at least spread across a broader social safety net, the TPP is targeting countries where the potential jump in drug prices will have dramatic effects. As the NYT notes, "foreign governments and health care activists have accused pharmaceutical giants, mostly based in the United States, of protecting profits over public health, especially in poor countries where neither the government nor consumers can afford to pay rates anywhere close to those charged in wealthier nations."
That fight re-emerged in the Pacific trade negotiations, which involve countries with strong cost-containment policies, like New Zealand, as well as poor countries like Peru and Vietnam.
The agreement “will increase the cost of medicines worldwide, starting with the 12 countries that are negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” said Judit Rius Sanjuan, a lawyer at Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian organization that provides medical care in more than 60 countries.
None other than the CEO of Mylan explained in the simplest possible way what is going on: a government mandated monopoly under the guise of a trade pact: "Heather Bresch, the chief executive of Mylan, one of the largest generic-drug makers, said the brand-name pharmaceutical industry was “establishing, through U.S. trade policy, an international system designed to maximize its monopolies."
But where the alarm bells truly go off is when someone, anyone, uses the word "fair" to justify policy, such as surging drug costs. To wit: "drug companies, however, say they need to be able to charge fair prices to compensate for the billions of dollars and decades of research that go into their medicines."
What is amusing is that the true motive behind the TPP's secrecy have been quite clear to virtually everyone but the population of the TPP's host nation:
“It was very clear to everyone except the U.S. that the initial proposal wasn’t about transparency. It was about getting market access for the pharmaceutical industry by giving them greater access to and influence over decision-making processes around pricing and reimbursement,” said Deborah Gleeson, a lecturer at the School of Psychology and Public Health at La Trobe University in Australia. And even though the section, known as the transparency annex, has been toned down, she said, “I think it’s a shame that the annex is still being considered at all for the T.P.P.”
RT adds that one country that should be in arms over the TPP is Australia:
The secret negotiations now allegedly reveal that Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme might be undermined, pushing up the cost of medicines in the country.
"United States trade negotiators have aggressively pushed for provisions favoring multinational pharmaceutical manufacturers at the expense of national governments and public healthcare systems," the Sydney Morning Herald wrote.
But the one place where the biggest price shock may be unleashed is, not surprisingly, the US itself :
The leaked TPP document "shows that the pact could expose Medicare to pharmaceutical company attacks and constrain future policy reforms, including the ability of the US government to curb rising and unsustainable drug prices," the US consumer rights advocacy group and think tank Public Citizen said in its Wednesday statement.
The group says president Obama's administration has been "acting at the behest of pharmaceutical companies," and the secret negotiations it has been holding within the partnership might affect Medicare, limiting "Congress' ability to enact policy reforms that would reduce prescription drug costs for Americans."
The same Congress, incidentally, which gladly washed its hands of any discussion of the TPP when the Senate "fast-tracked" its passage and as the NYT further notes, "a House vote on final passage of the bill, now expected on Friday, appears extremely close."
In other words, in exchange for a few million in lobby spending, aka bribes, by Big Pharma, the US Congress has once again sold out the US population, and this time it even voluntarily bypassed even the mock democratic process of debating the law it will pass.
Why? Just so shareholders of pharmaceutical companies could reap even greater profits at the expense of not just the US population, but of the populations of some of the biggest US trading partners, all of whom are about to see the prices of medical care skyrocket.
And since nothing is confirmed until it is officially denied, here is the punchline:
“The transparency annex in T.P.P. is not subject to Investor-State Dispute Settlement, and nothing in its provisions will undermine our ability to pursue the best health care policy for Americans, including any future action on health care expenditures and cost containment,” a trade representative spokesman said.
Those Americans who may wish to challenge the claim well, they are out of luck: Congress is about to make sure there is no way anyone can have a say into what big corporations have in store for the US population.
The full Transparency Chapter Healthcare Annex below:
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*Conspiracy Theorist (a registered TM and SM of NWO LLC)
Lol, excellent satire!
Obamacare: If you never pay .... no change .... if you pay .... you will pay much more .... so, can you blame Big Pharma .... for wanting it's share ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FlzYdWQsSI
Democracy has become demoncracy.
What has become of healthcare and education , these should have been provided free by government in exchange for taxes & for the holy purpose of human rights.
Again its the beast (of money, the 666) that is playing the pied piper (from hell).
I'm running for President on GoFundMe.
Sort of makes sense. Make health care a herding ground for the poor, the ill, and elderly so that they can be culled more efficiently. The .05 percent do not like to see ill, elderly people. They lust after youth. Maybe that's why vile acts are carried out on the young and innocent in order to cement allegiance to their top ranks.
they would love to see all dead because we cant afford their shit.
"Big Pharma" ---> FDA Drug-Dealer Cartel
They are doing this with the EU too, but on two fronts.
1) attempting to get an EU wide agreement to accept racketeering price fixing as a condition of supplying medical products to Greece, to be paid for later;
2) via the trans Atlantic TTIP 'Trade Agreement'.
This is blatant Cartel, Monopolistic, Racketeering, Profiteering, Corporate Socialism, and the Corporate, Political, and Bureaucratic culprits, need to be JAILED!
All existing and presently 'negotiated' so called "Trade Agreements" need to be scrapped, because the last thing they are interested in is Free Trade, Competition, or an open Marketplace. They are actually anti business, anti competitive, anti jobs, and are a very real financial war being waged on customers. Business is people to people, and business to business, not Government to Government, or Bureaucrat to Bureaucrat.
Hand in glove with that, ALL compulsory insurance needs to be banned (it has also created captive uncompetitive markets - for example when my motorbike had minor repairs after an idiot drove into the back of me, why did about £100 in parts and 2 hours labour, HAVE TO BE invoiced by the repairer to the insurance company, for just under £4,000?}. Yes that ban should include all so called 'National' insurance deducted from wages as well, because it too is nothing but a looting and pillaging Ponzi Scheme.
People worry about cars on the road with uninsured drivers. Well, if you are that worried, take out personal insurance to cover you if another car runs into you. THAT insurance, once deregulated, would cost people far less than they are presently paying with everybody compulsorily insured. A friends GT car in Madrid cost under £150 a year to insure fully comprehensive there, when she moved to London, why was her insurance over £1,700 for the same car? They are both major cities, with similar risks, and her details were the same in both Countries.
The ongoing looting and pillaging has to be stopped.
PS. If we don't end this nonsense, by far the biggest employers (small and medium sized businesses usually account for around 70% of real wealth creating jobs) will be decimated, and then these Corporate Socialists won't have ANY customers able to buy their products, and Governments will have revenues collapse catastrophically. If they succeed in getting it all, they will end up with nothing, and SO WILL WE.
This is MASSIVELY of point but I felt like I need to say it. I have combed this website regarding every David Tepper article I could find on him. COincidentally I seem to find only negative comments. As a family that has been invested with Mr. Tepper Since he opened his doors in 1993 the man has had hands down the best returns in the not only the hedge fund industry but the money management industry in general. a million dollars invest in 93 would be worth north of 160 million dollars now. One must take into acccount that he has given back 3 times as much capital to his outside investors than are currently invested in his fund. To annualize 33% a year for 22 years is simply absurd, and if u r a student of th market u should be in awe of his ability. Also the anti-semetic stuff is just sickening. He is one of the most philanthropic and normal guys around. In short he is a force of nature. He does not let his political views influence his investing and he is flat out the best investor in the world. There is a reason he does not have a website, he works in far hills, and he will drop u from his fund at a moments notice if you are being obnoxious. He has the most loyal investor base in the world and he delivers the best results in the world. Im sorry he has learned to make money in this market and you have not yet. Thats why he is the richest man in New Jersey, and I for one am forever indebted to him. Oh yah and he isent having to shabby of a year either, only beating the S&P by 5-10x so far this year.... but what can you do.
oh ayh and the 33% is net of fees, but dont think he has accepted money into Palamino since '97....
oh ayh and the 33% is net of fees, but dont think he has accepted money into Palamino since '97....
oh yah and @Squid Viscous he does not live in Scarsdale or Gwich and he is recently divorced.... Probably why he had an off year last year. If by an off year you mean only up 5% after fees(which I consider an off year).
....
They don't call him Barry O'Pharma for nothing.
Im with u on Barack thought Brother guy is a sleaze bag
Hehe ... Americans betrayed by 'their' government at every turn. Mussolini would be truly jealous of Obama and Co.
And now tyring to get other governments to knife their populations as well.
Obama might go down in history as America's biggest cunt President.
And his sin is by far the worst, he is educated and smart enough to know exactly what it is he is doing to the people. He with foreknowledge and understanding is doing harm and fucking over the US people, deliberately, in order to enrich a handfull of Oligarchs. Why?
Why would Obama choose a handful of the most powerful and richest in opposition to a few hundred million people who chose him to 'protect' their interests?
We know why.
Never in the field of American history have so many been betrayed by so few.
Why waste your time worrying about Obama? He's just a tool. The Money Power is the problem that corrupts everything it touches. Look to those who created and put the tool in place.
I wonder what rates of cancer or other chronic illnesses the elites get? would be interesting to chart that against other populations, I'm tipping they get access to medications and techniques we could only dream of.
Just learn how to take care of yourself and you will be fine. As the Brazillian pointed out up thread Big Pharma pillages available ancient knowledge on medicinal plants. No intellectual property rights for the locals they steal this from thank you, and then reproduce the compound, patent it and sell it. You can skip all the intervening steps and not pay Big Pharma. Find out about the medicinal properties of plants in your locality. I was exposed to this when I trained to be a volunteer guide at a wilderness preserve. I was amazed at what was available. The Aruvedic system of what to eat and not eat depending on symptoms and how you feel is another thing worth checking out. And ... take a look at this.
Don't be a victim.
Thanks for that will have a look. A while back i was reading an article on a Uni had identified the gene responsible for causing deaths by the death cap mushroom and the researchers were equally excited about the discovery of new chemicals and their genes in the mushroom, made me question what this technology could do in the wrong hands.
Answer my question......should I buy today's Dow or sell it ?
Is there scope for a RICO conviction?
I am amazed that a man who is trying to remove every secular dictator from the middle east is trying to use 3 documents to become one himself.
amazed? really? Then you are stupid or you have not been paying attention the last 7 years.....I bet you voted for him.
gut the generic drug industry in USA as .gov policy, you know those low education jobs are better done in the 3rd world..running mass specs and such, Q&A and GMP compliance is better done in madras then triangle park NC. how congress has avoided being hung for the crimes of off shoring our economy is a true testament to the power of the elite corps and MSM to befuddle an already clue less citizenery...one can sit back and be amazed at the success the rat fuck reptiles have had.
I'm Jack's complete lack of surprise.
For you, Tylers
ObamaCare going global...
The U.S. is by far the most corrupt country on the face of the earth.
based on you "vast knowlege" of other countries as provided to you by the socialist jew dominated media......I suppose.....
What idiocy......other countries are at least as corrupt as us, and many more so.
"Wouldn't it be wonderful to have our first black president"!!!!!
if it's an 0bamao scheme it's no good for us.
"Wouldn't it be wonderful to have our first female president"!!!!! - Narrative is clear...
“The transparency annex in T.P.P. is not subject to Investor-State Dispute Settlement, and nothing in its provisions will undermine our ability to pursue the best health care policy for Americans, including any future action on health care expenditures and cost containment,” a trade representative spokesman said."
I guess it's going to get to the point where the paying public is going to have to forcibly remove some of these honchos in positions of power (in and out of government) to put a stop to shit just like this...
Increasingly, there doesn't seem to be any other option.
Just listen to the garbage in the statement quoted above. Was BloCare "the best health care policy for Americans"? Yes, if you like skyrocketing costs, with much more limited access to care (extraordinary deductibles, for example).
If these SOB's actually cared about health care for people, the government would've audited all participating health care providers FIRST to determine WHY medical care in the U.S. costs what it does. Under such a first step, any provider expecting to participate in any future program of legislatively-facilitated access to their products and services would HAVE TO open their books to a full review, AND justification, of cost claims. Can't justify them, or won't open the books? Then you are restricted from participating in whatever program is ultimately created. Further, NO provider refusing or unable to comply with the cost analysis phase of the associated program can lobby any legislator...period.
THAT'S how it SHOULD'VE gone...
Instead, what was shoved down our throats (remember, we had to "pass" this BloCare trash to "find out what's in it...") merely forced people into a system of essentially cost sharing without accountability...under penalty for non-participation to boot. Health care costs, if anything, have gone up, and continue to go up, without hard question or constraint.
Same as it ever was.
Now, the bastards are at it again. Like termites eating away at what's left of a dead middle class economy, claiming (bless their pointy little heads) they have to be able to recoup costs of R&D over decades of investment in "new medicines".
Here's a clue for ya: Stop doing us any more favors with your R&D; we clearly can't afford you.
As a retired health care professional, I've seen waste the size of Mount Everest and costs wholly unjustified--except to the extent they fund inordinate salaries and fancy facilities. Fancy dope and fancy machines that fewer and fewer can access. Much of it not much more effective than old school drugs and methods...but one helluva lot more expensive.
THE FACT IS, WE SHOULD NOT BE ENCOURAGING AND ANTICIPATING DEVELOPMENT OF THERAPIES WE ULTIMATELY CANNOT AFFORD OUT OF OUR OWN POCKETS.
Expensive therapeutics create the environment where the "we have to do something" mentality too often leads to extraordinarily-unaffordable "solutions", without substantial benefit, until access is legislatively provided for, at the expense of cost containment and cost accountability.
NO government-sponsored ANYTHING should be enacted WITHOUT regular review and justification of the providers of the products or services sponsored. If you expect to be part of a process legislatively supporting access to your products and services, then YOU must face regular review of your claimed expenses in developing such products and services. If you can't justify claimed costs, they're NOT part of the program. If you fail this test constistently, then YOU, the provider, are not part of said program...period.
These products or services also have to WORK demonstrably. That standard alone would slow, if not contain, a lot of the insanity of rising health care costs.
Bottom line: We can't afford fancy, marginally-effective therapies. Nor can we afford the societal risks to popular government that corporate lobbies increasingly threaten. NO possible therapy (at any price) is worth THAT.
If elected bodies can't or won't refuse to cede the people's power to govern themselves AND the corportation, then it's time the people take bolder steps to stop BOTH cold. NO legislation or treaty LEGITIMATELY in the people's interest should EVER need to be kept "secret" from them.
We went through that with BloCare...
When is enough enough?
m
According to my pharmacist, taxpayers fund the majority of drug R&D in this country. Yet the drug company gets the patent.
American consumers thus pay twice. First, when we fund the R&D. Second, when we pay a monopoly price for those same drugs whose R&D we've already funded.
See: Bayh-Dole Act.
But who is the puppet master behind pharma?
Gates et al. Funded by Soros.
Killing kids in the third world with experimental vaccines being their current activity.
ah for the good ole days, when we had presidents that went after monopolistic oligarchs and defended the common man.
now, we have bought and paid actors selling out america for a few bucks
i'd like to believe that a revolution or a collapse is imminent. the arrogance is disgusting.
What I don't understand is why local Chambers of Commerce don't fight this sort of legislation.
This article is an excellent example of why ZERO HEDGE is so valuable.
Big Pharma... the real drug dealers and the real cartel!
Sold! to the highest bidder - Phucking Pharma.
...because their CEO's need MOAR compensation;
... because their R&D expenses are so crazy high (the 'we're paying for the rest of the world' lame argument) - RIGHT!
Have a look at ANY pharmaceutical company's Annual Report. Advertising/ Marketing and Tort Expense Reserves/Insurance are by far their greatest expenditures.
Drug ads on TV & multi-pagers in glossy mags? Promotion to physicians (read 'bribes')?
This Amerikan cancer will now spread to saner, less venal nations via FAIR trade agreements cooked up by these vampire drug pushers.
Makes me ashamed because they're not.
Aurora shooter - on SSRIs, Adam Lanza Newtown shooter - on SSRIs, Navy Yard Shooter - on SSRIs. But the media never, ever looks at Big Pharma because they might pull their advertising. They go after guns instead; no advertisers to offend.
This is 100% awesome, I shit you not. Thanks Obama. Thanks Republicans. Thanks Pfizer.
The other 180 worthless countries have been drug deadbeats for ages. Making them pay means lower prices here (the more mass a mass-market, the lower the commoditized price). Their artificially low prices will skyrocket of course, but why should we care? Plus higher global payouts make more orphan therapies into potential goldmines - we will see more drug development. We need that, before I catch something lethal.
Bravo TPP!
Are you on the payroll of RT? What's the problem when high quality medicines are better reimbursed? It improves the access of the patient to quality products. In those documents is also written that those products should be proved in clinical studies. But that's the way you are writting your articles: put out of context and draw the "right" conclusion. Pathetic!
The globalisation of poverty morphs into the globalisation of dope. Congratulations to big pharma.
@ chogopogo
Are you Nucking Futs! With an already long track record of rigging studies and ignoring studies, the casualties from so called 'high quality medicines' are already APPALLING!
For example it has been known since the 1950's that cholesterol is not the problem, yet look at the damage Statins do. Already linked with causing diabetes, muscle damage (the heart is a muscle, remember), memory impairment, over 80 studies showing nerve damage, the suppression of the body's essential coenzyme Q10 production, etc., but $25 billion in Global sales is all that matters to crooks like you, right? FFS there's even idiots trying to get Statins added to the water supply!
What about Beta Blockers? Recent studies have shown that thanks once again to rigged studies, in a recent 5 year period, as many as 800,000 people have been KILLED by Beta Blockers, just in Europe! That's RWANDA MASSACRE NUMBERS! Numbers that don't include those critically injured by Beta Blockers, that now have to live with the unnecessary damage they have caused.
EtCetErA!
According to you, charging $30,000 for an anti venom treatment that costs $100 retail in the Country it is made (Mexico) is somehow a sustainable business model, that needs to be expanded GLOBALLY??
It's pretty clear just who pays you to come out with this dangerous crap, and I hope the legal process is going to catch up with the likes of you, before the lynch mob finds you.
We need a new Nuremberg Trials for these criminals, and like the first one, it should include the DEATH PENALTY.
Keep cool, pal! You generalise sooo easy. And you jump as easy to the wrong conclusions. For your info, I am not paid from pharma to write good about it. It's only a conclusion: that a lot of the articles written here are rubbish. They are using pretty every event and put in the context of "America bad / Russia good". Take a step back, look from some distance. Have you red those documents? Have you an opinion yourself, or do you take your opinion from the others, because it's cool to be anti-system? I don't like to enter into details about statins and other medicines. Every medicine should have a clear indication and in my opinion all the studies of a drug should be published. It's funny how you relate to studies to fight studies... so, are the studies good or bad? Are they necessary or not? On the other hand, you can't expect that if you are sick, you just take a medicine and everything is all right. You may live a little bit longer, but do not expect from a drug to eat healthy for you, to exercise for you and to speak decent for you.
So, to come back, I allow me to conclude that when you take a lot of your references from RT and when you try to show how great stalinism was, you are not quite unbiased. If you read ZH, you know what I am talking about.
And because you look so tough anti-system, I think you appreciate a difference in opinion, and you are able to debate with arguments, not mouth foaming!
P.S.: do not try to reply, because I'll not!
Keep cool, pal! You generalise sooo easy. And you jump as easy to the wrong conclusions. For your info, I am not paid from pharma to write good about it. It's only a conclusion: that a lot of the articles written here are rubbish. They are using pretty every event and put in the context of "America bad / Russia good". Take a step back, look from some distance. Have you red those documents? Have you an opinion yourself, or do you take your opinion from the others, because it's cool to be anti-system? I don't like to enter into details about statins and other medicines. Every medicine should have a clear indication and in my opinion all the studies of a drug should be published. It's funny how you relate to studies to fight studies... so, are the studies good or bad? Are they necessary or not? On the other hand, you can't expect that if you are sick, you just take a medicine and everything is all right. You may live a little bit longer, but do not expect from a drug to eat healthy for you, to exercise for you and to speak decent for you.
So, to come back, I allow me to conclude that when you take a lot of your references from RT and when you try to show how great stalinism was, you are not quite unbiased. If you read ZH, you know what I am talking about.
And because you look so tough anti-system, I think you appreciate a difference in opinion, and you are able to debate with arguments, not mouth foaming!
P.S.: do not try to reply, because I'll not!