Gore joins Kissinger, wins Nobel.
Three pieces, sans commentary.
Transcript from 60 Minutes (5/12/96):
U.S. Journalist Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?
Secretary of State, under Clinton and Gore, Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price--we think the price is worth it.
August 1, 1999
Dear Vice President Gore,
We are writing to express opposition to trade pressures you are bringing against the people of South Africa over their struggle to obtain access to essential medicines.
The White House dispute with South Africa concerns three basic points.
1. The South Africa government has indicated it wants to use compulsory licensing of medical patents to produce cheaper copies of HIV drugs and other essential medicines. This is of course legal under the WTO/TRIPS agreement, subject to Article 31 safeguards.
2. The South Africa government wants to authorize "parallel imports" of pharmaceuticals, so that it can buy drugs in the United States, Europe or elsewhere, in order to get the best world price. As you know, parallel importing of pharmaceuticals is legal under Article 6 of the WTO/TRIPS agreement, and is a common practice in Europe.
3. The South African government has approved generic versions of Taxol, a US government invention for treating cancer.
As co-chairman of the US/South Africa Binational Commission (BNC) you have authorized a wide range of trade pressures against South Africa, much of which is documented in a February 5, 1999 report to the Congress by the US Department of State. Despite increasing criticism of the US bilateral pressures on South Africa, here and internationally, your office has authorized new trade pressures against South Africa on April 30, 1999. http://www.cptech.org/ip/health/sa/sa301-ap99.html"
The USTR April 30, 1999 announcement of a Special 301 out-of-cycle review of trade pressures against South Africa ignored every shred of information that has been provided to your office by public health groups. Indeed, this most recent announcement is basically a recycled version of the February 16, 1999 submissions by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufactures Association (PhRMA), the trade association that represents giant drug companies like Bristol-Myers Squibb, Glaxo, Pfizer, and Johnson and Johnson that are trying to stop South Africa from implementing policies to cut costs for pharmaceuticals in South Africa.
It is shocking that the US government is adopting such an aggressive trade policy on behalf of US pharmaceutical companies, when all of sub-Saharan Africa is confronted with a public health crisis of historical dimensions. The US Surgeon General, Dr. David Satcher, recently wrote in the Journal of the America Medical Association that "HIV/AIDS can be likened to the plague that decimated the population of Europe in the 14th century." Dr. Satcher says that "in many southern African countries, HIV/AIDS has become an unprecedented emergency, with 20% to 26% of people between the ages of 15 and 49 infected." This is a here-and-now emergency. It is not a hypothetical or potential emergency. These people will die without access to pharmaceutical drugs.
Your response to this emergency should be to find ways to save lives. But look what you are doing.
-You are aggressively seeking the repeal of legislation in South Africa that would permit that country to do what nations in Europe do, use parallel imports to buy drugs at the best world price. South Africa wants to use market forces to cut drug costs. You are pushing to protect pharmaceutical companies from global competition, thereby forcing the South Africa people to pay premiums to buy drugs.
-You are punishing South Africa for even speaking out in favor of compulsory licensing of HIV/AIDS and other essential medicines. The April 30, 1999 report on South Africa complains that:
During the past year, South African representatives have led a faction of nations in the World Health Organization (WHO) in calling for a reduction in the level of protection provided for pharmaceuticals in TRIPS.
In fact, everything South Africa is seeking to do is legal under the WTO/TRIPS agreement, so this and countless other statements by US government officials are bald lies. But regardless, the exercise of free speech in international forums is an astonishing basis for trade sanctions. As an elected official, indeed, as a human, how would you act if 20 percent of all sexually active young people in the United States were infected with a fatal disease, and a foreign country was trying to prevent you from purchasing drugs on the global market to save money, and was preventing you from licensing firms to manufacture life saving medicines? Would you simply show up at the World Health Assembly and docilely applaud the actions of that country? Even if that foreign country was engaged in a relentless public relations campaign to label every legal action as a form of piracy or lawlessness? At what point would you have the guts to tell the world the truth, and to speak out on behalf of millions of infected young men and women?
-You are punishing South Africa for giving approval to generic versions of Taxol, a cancer drug that was invented by the US government. There are aspects of the US government complaint about Taxol that are absurd, on technical grounds, such as the insistence that South Africa extend longer periods of data exclusivity than are required in the United States. But the larger issue is more basic. Why on earth should Vice President Al Gore or any other US government employee seek to prevent global competition for Taxol, a life saving cancer drug that was invented and developed by the US National Institutes of Health? Taxol was in NIH sponsored Phase III trials before the Bush Administration gave BMS exclusive rights to use NIH research for drug approvals. What is the moral basis for extending the BMS monopoly on Taxol in a country that is so poor?
As the Vice President of the United States you are in a position to do much good or much harm in the world. US voters will soon be asked to determine if you should be the next President of the United States. Please explain why they should choose you.
Sincerely,
James Love
Director
Consumer Project on Technology
Washington, DC
Dr. Bernard Pécoul
Project Director
Access to Essential Drugs
Médecins Sans Frontières
Geneva, Switerland
Joelle Tanguy
Executive Director
Doctors Without
Borders/Medecins Sans
Frontieres USA
Eric Sawyer
Executive Director
HIV/AIDS Human Rights Project
NY, NY
Kim Nichols
Development Director
African Services Committee,
Inc.
Bas van der Heide
Director
Health Action International
Europe
Beryl Leach
Africa Program Coordinator
Health Action International
Lori Wallach
Director
Global Trade Watch
Washington, DC
Professor Richard Laing
Associate Professor,
Department of International
Health, Boston University
Robert Weissman
Co-Director, Essential Action
Washington, DC
Bob Lederer
Senior Editor
POZ Magazine
Steve Suppan, PhD
Director of Research
Institute for Agriculture and
Trade
Axel Delmotte
Act Up - Paris
Professor Patrick Bond
University of the
Witwatersrand
Graduate School of Public and
Development Management
Johannesburg, South Africa
Clarence Mini, MD
Treatment Action Campaign
Johannesburg, Gauteng
Province, South Africa
Ellen 't Hoen
International Drug Policy
Consultant
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Mike Scherer
Aetna Professor of Public
Policy
John F. Kennedy School of
Government
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass
John S. James
Editor and publisher
AIDS Treatment News
San Francisco, CA
David Scondras
President, Search for a Cure
Dr.Mira Shiva
Coordinator
All India Drug Action Network
New Delhi, India
Dr. Amir Attaran, LL.B.
Director
The Malaria Project, CSRL
Washington, DC USA
Andrew Herxheimer
Emeritus Fellow
UK Cochrane Centre
London, UK
Anna Ponte
AVVA Frontera Gran Sabana
Caracas, Venezuela
Alejandro Argumedo
Coordinator
Indigenous Peoples'
Biodiversity Network
Cusco, PERU
Ian Stevens
Falmouth
Cornwall, UK
Alex LoCascio
United Food and Commercial
Workers
Lynchburg, VA, USA
David C. Korten
President
The People-Centered
Development Forum
U.S.A.
Parshu Ram Tamang
Tribhuvan University
Kathmandu, Nepal
Dr. Dale A. Hathaway
Professor of Political Science
Butler University
Indianapolis, IN U.S.A.
Mr. Wiert P. Wiertsema
Policy Coordinator
Both ENDS
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Oystein Tveter
Human Rights Lawyer
Vinderen, Oslo, Norway
John Y. Jones
Director
DiS - Diakonhjemmet
internasjonale Senter
OSLO, NORWAY
LOT S. MIRANDA
Country Director
Swiss Interchurch Aid Cambodia
Program
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Christopher T. Arata
CEO
Cayucos, California, USA
Vlady Rivera
Information Officer
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Robert Anderson
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New Zealand
Debal Deb
Centre for Interdisciplinary
Studies
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India
May Waddington
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Tim Luckett
University of Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire, England.
Dr. David Fig
University of the
Witwatersrand
Johannesburg, South Africa
Peter McLaverty
Senior Lecturer
University of Luton
Luton, England
Toine Pieters
Medical Historian, School of
Medicine
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Daniel Querol
Managua, Nicaragua
Dr. Ernst von Weizsaecker
Member of the Federal
Parliament (Bundestag), for
the ruling SPD
Daniel J. Koenig, Ph.D.
Professor
University of Victoria
Victoria, British Columbia,
Canada
Ms. Diana Smith
Paris, France
Dashiell Love
Olympia WA, USA
Joe Goozeff
Randwick, N.S.W. Australia
Cherrel Africa
Cape Town Democracy Centre
Institute for Democracy in SA
South Africa
Arnold Ward
GeneEthics Network and South
Australian Genetic Food
Information Network
Adelaide, South Australia,
Australia
Pierre Chirac
MSF
Michael R. Pitula
Ames, Iowa, U.S.A.
Etienne Vernet
Campaign Coordinator on
genetic engineering
Paris, France
Richard Levins
Harvard School of Public
Health
Val Dusek
Associate Prof. of Philosophy
University of NH
Durham, NH
Rev. Douglas B. Hunt
Washington & UN Representative
United Church of Christ
Network for Environmental and
Economic Responsibility
Wheaton, MD USA
George Salzman
Physics Dept
Univ of Massachusetts
Boston, MA USA
Phoebe Barnard (PhD)
National Coordinator
Namibian Biodiversity Program
Windhoek, Namibia
Mara Bird
Center for International
Studies, University of
Southern California
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of America
Sid Shniad
Research Director
Telecommunications Workers
Union
Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada
Uri Strauss
Neil Young Institute
Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada
Jesse Vorst
Professor of Economics
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Canada
Michael Ash
PhD Candidate
Dept. of Economics, UC
Berkeley
Berkeley, California, USA
Gladys Schmitz
SSND (School Sister of Notre
Dame)
Mankato, MN, USA
Yash Tandon
Professor
International South Group
Network
Harare, Zimbabwe
Angus Kerr
Engineer
Durban, Kwazulu-Natal, South
Africa
Jaroen Compeerapap
Resident fellow
International Economic Law and
Dispute Settlement, Erasmus
University
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Elaine Bernard
Executive Director
Harvard Trade Union Program
Cambridge, MA, USA
Daniel Querol
Managua NICARAGUA
Ann C. Davidson
Principal
Davidson Library Services
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Stephen Morey
Monash University
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Roy J. Kaye
Lynnwood, WA U.S.A.
Ken Orzel
Pompano Beach, Fl USA
David Hoos, M.D. M.P.H.
Consultant
AIDS Institute, NY State
Department of Health
New York, NY
Mark Raijmakers
Programme coordinator
Wemos Foundation
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Kate O'Connell
Patrice Newell
Director
The Elmswood Press
Australia
Jef Keighley,
National Representative
Canadian Auto Workers
New Westminster, B.C., Canada
John Lamperti
Professor
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH, USA
David Banta
Senior Researcher
Netherlands Organization for
Applied Scientific Research
Leiden, The Netherlands
Sarah Sexton/Larry
Lohmann/Nicholas
Hildyard/Tracey Clunies Ross
THE CORNER HOUSE
Sturminster Newton, Dorset
BRITAIN
P Marc Schwartz
Waumandee, Wisc, USA
Francisco Arroyo G.D.
Coordinador de Programas
Centro de Investigación y
Capacitación Rural A.C.
Cd. de México, México
Gabriela C. Flora
Program Associate in
Agricultural Biotechnologies
Institute for Agriculture and
Trade Policy
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Rev. Des McGillicuddy
Justice & Peace Officer
Mill Hill Missionaries
London, England
Margarita Florez
Laywer
Executive Director
Centro Debate y Acción
Ambiental
Laura Maxwell Stuart
Programme Officer
South African NGO Coalition
Johannesburg, South Africa
Kerry Irish
South African National NGO
Coalition
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Africa
Martin Rall
ANC and SACP
Johannesburg, South Africa
Ryan Hunter
Center for Environmental
Public Advocacy
Ponicka Huta, Slovakia
Juraj Zamkovsky
Director
Friends of the Earth Slovakia
Ponicka Huta, Slovakia
Michael Niemann
Associate Professor of
International Studies
Trinity College
Hartford, CT
Norberto A. Stuart
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Geoffrey Schniewind
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Victoria S. Cashman
Middletown, Ohio, USA
Clive Swan
Kagiso GIS & IT Solutions
Johannesburg, South Africa
Damian McKeon
Greystones
Co. Wicklow, Republic of
Ireland
Paul McCartin
Father
Society of St Columban
(Columban Fathers)
Kanagawa, Japan
Al Stern
Senior Art Director
Common Health/Adient
(Pharmaceutical Advertising
Agency)
Nutley, NJ, USA
C. A. Hilgartner, MD
Director
Hilgartner & Associates
Kirksville, MO, United
States of America
Annamarie Gervais
SA citizen living in Texas
San Marcos, TX
Anton Prenneis
Highland, N.Y.
Amy Ferber
Highland, N.Y.
Alexander Rau
Student
Cornell University, University
of Oxford (England)
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Dr. Ayesha Imam
Baobab for Women's Human
Rights
Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria
Stephen Ball
Seattle, Washington, USA
Brian Cowan
Alameda, CA, USA
Michael Pease
Seattle, Washington, USA
Susan Rodriguez & Petra
Berrios
Co-Coordinators
S.M.A.R.T. University
(Sisterhood Mobilized for
AIDS/HIV Resources &
Treatment)
New York, NY, USA
Ed Schehl
Director/Producer
Raindancer Film & Video
Santa Cruz, CA
Katherine Knight
Editor, "Epicenter"
Santa Cruz, CA
Brian Ashley
The Alternative
Information & Development
Centre (AIDC)
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Africa
Brian P. Flaherty
The Pennsylvania State
University
State College, PA, USA
Brian Schroeder
Okemos, MI USA
Robert Riedel
Dansville, NY, USA
Stephan Eric Schoenfield
Director of Software
Development
Keyspan Inc
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Carl Shoolman
Rochester, NY USA
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Beaumont, Texas, USA
Clionadh O' Keeffe
Student
Cork, Ireland
Corynne McSherry
Doctoral Candidate
Department of Communication,
UC San Diego
San Francisco, CA USA
Dale T. McKinley
South African Communist Party
Head Office
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South Africa
David Longjohn Stanton
Boalt-Harvard Law School
Exchange, '99
David Morris
Vice President
Institute for Local Self-
Reliance,
Minneapolis, MN
David Young
Mahomet, Illinois, USA
David E. Long
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
David Gofstein
Phoenix, AZ USA
Dina Lozofsky
Los Angeles, CA USA
Byron Dolan
Hoboken, NJ, USA
Alan Berkman, MD
Medical Specialist
HIV Center for Clinical and
Behavioral Studies, Columbia
University
New York, NY
Elina Hemminki
Prof.
Helsinki, Finland
Eric F. Miller
San Jose, CA, USA
Ernst Mayer
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Mechanical &
Aerospace Engineering
Case Western Reserve
University
Cleveland, OH
Everett L. Williams, II
Democrat
Canyon Lake, TX USA
Faye Powell
Professor, Social Sciences
Librarian
Portland State University
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Edgar F. Starr
Tampa, Florida, USA
Fred Turner
Ph.D. Candidate
University of California, San
Diego
La Jolla, CA
Liz Hosken
Director
Gaia Foundation
London, UK
Mr. Jody Gatwood
Associate Professor
The Catholic University of
America
Washington, DC USA
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Goleta, CA, U.S.A.
Gordon Irlam
San Francisco, CA, USA
Madras, Tamil Nadu, India
Harriet Harmon
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Los Angeles, CA U.S.A.
Ismael Galve-Roperh
Dept. of Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology I
School of Biology, Complutense
University
Madrid, SPAIN
James M Wright, MD, PhD,
FRCP(C)
Associate Professor
University of British Columbia
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Jean Grossholtz
South Hadley, MA
James W. Sanders
Chief Technical Officer
Steppingstones Designs
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Jim Strichartz
Law Offices of James L.
Strichartz
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Prof. Joan P. Mencher
Lehman College of CUNY.
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Emergency Physician
Toronto General Hospital
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Joey Sum
Lexington, KY, USA
John Andrew
Professor and chair of History
Franklin & Marshall College
Lancaster, PA USA
Johndan Johnson-Eilola, PhD
Director of Professional
Writing
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN, USA
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Katherine Sarah Lysons
GIS Technical Specialist
CADCORP
Stevenage, Hertfordshire
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Kim Nichols
Development Director
African Services Committee,
Inc.
New York, NY
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Nakahashi kanazawa, JAPAN
C.C. Latshaw
Lakewood, WA, USA
Avram Rips
Maplewood, NJ
Tina Teong
Subang Jaya, Selangor,
Malaysia
Luis Kemnitzer
Professor Emeritus
San Francisco State University
San Francisco CA, USA
Cheri Stafford
BBA, M.S.Th., MSEd
Mt. Kisco, NY UNITED STATES
Marie Smoes
Silver Spring, MD USA
Marjorie Power
Newsletter editor
Older Women's League- Green
Mountain Chapter
Montpelier, VT, USA
Mark Williams
Portland, OR USA
Dr. Mary C. Carras
Professor Emerita,Rutgers
University
Camden, NJ - USA
Matthew Fitt
Student of Law
U.C.Hastings
San Francisco, CA, USA
Melvin J. Roseman
Encino, CA, USA
Melinda Johnston
Vancouver, BC Canada
A. Michael Froomkin
Professor of Law
U. Miami School of Law
Coral Gables, FL USA
Michael McGuire
Information/Technology
Coordinator
Maryland Cooperative Extension
Service
Washington DC
Michail Rassool,
Editor
Idasa Publishing,
Cape Town, South Africa
Michael Seifert
Roman Catholic priest
Washington Province of the
Society of Mary
Brownsville, Texas, USA
Tewolde & Sue
Institute for Sustainable
Development
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Eric George
New Orleans, LA
Nathan Ford
Medecins Sans Frontieres
United Kingdon
Nicholas Sammond
University of California, San
Diego
San Francisco, CA, USA
Pam Raby
Albany, OR, US
Perry Papka
Institute of Social and
Economic Research, University
of Alaska-Anchorage
Anchorage, AK
Peter Schachte
Lecturer
The University of Melbourne
Parkville, Victoria, Australia
Philip Heede
Alleroed, Denmark
J. G. Krishnayya
Executive Director
Systems Research Institute
PUNE, INDIA
Richard Crawford
Lecturer in Information Age
Ethics
Univ. of Calif, Davis
Davis, CA, USA
Richard Gerace
Falmouth, Massachusetts
Robert M. Akscyn
President
Knowledge Systems
Export, PA, USA
Robert Braunwart
Seattle, Wash., U.S.A.
Robert E. van Patten, Ph.D.,
P.E.
Consultant
Bellbrook, OH USA
Anne-Sophie Robilliard
Research Analyst
IFPRI
Washington, DC, USA
Roland D. Kelso
Pastor
Catholic Church
Ninomiya, Kanagawa-ken Japan
Ron Regan Jr
Somerville, MA, 02145 USA
Russell Hoover
Editor
American Book Review
"This is a war against the children of Iraq on two fronts: bombing, which in the last year cost the British taxpayer £60 million. And the most ruthless embargo in modern history. According to Unicef, the United Nations Children's Fund, the death rate of children under five is more than 4,000 a month - that is 4,000 more than would have died before sanctions. That is half a million children dead in eight years. If this statistic is difficult to grasp, consider, on the day you read this, up to 200 Iraqi children may die needlessly."- from Squeezed to death (The Guardian, Saturday March 4, 2000)
Transcript from 60 Minutes (5/12/96):
U.S. Journalist Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?
Secretary of State, under Clinton and Gore, Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price--we think the price is worth it.
August 1, 1999
Dear Vice President Gore,
We are writing to express opposition to trade pressures you are bringing against the people of South Africa over their struggle to obtain access to essential medicines.
The White House dispute with South Africa concerns three basic points.
1. The South Africa government has indicated it wants to use compulsory licensing of medical patents to produce cheaper copies of HIV drugs and other essential medicines. This is of course legal under the WTO/TRIPS agreement, subject to Article 31 safeguards.
2. The South Africa government wants to authorize "parallel imports" of pharmaceuticals, so that it can buy drugs in the United States, Europe or elsewhere, in order to get the best world price. As you know, parallel importing of pharmaceuticals is legal under Article 6 of the WTO/TRIPS agreement, and is a common practice in Europe.
3. The South African government has approved generic versions of Taxol, a US government invention for treating cancer.
As co-chairman of the US/South Africa Binational Commission (BNC) you have authorized a wide range of trade pressures against South Africa, much of which is documented in a February 5, 1999 report to the Congress by the US Department of State. Despite increasing criticism of the US bilateral pressures on South Africa, here and internationally, your office has authorized new trade pressures against South Africa on April 30, 1999. http://www.cptech.org/ip/health/sa/sa301-ap99.html"
The USTR April 30, 1999 announcement of a Special 301 out-of-cycle review of trade pressures against South Africa ignored every shred of information that has been provided to your office by public health groups. Indeed, this most recent announcement is basically a recycled version of the February 16, 1999 submissions by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufactures Association (PhRMA), the trade association that represents giant drug companies like Bristol-Myers Squibb, Glaxo, Pfizer, and Johnson and Johnson that are trying to stop South Africa from implementing policies to cut costs for pharmaceuticals in South Africa.
It is shocking that the US government is adopting such an aggressive trade policy on behalf of US pharmaceutical companies, when all of sub-Saharan Africa is confronted with a public health crisis of historical dimensions. The US Surgeon General, Dr. David Satcher, recently wrote in the Journal of the America Medical Association that "HIV/AIDS can be likened to the plague that decimated the population of Europe in the 14th century." Dr. Satcher says that "in many southern African countries, HIV/AIDS has become an unprecedented emergency, with 20% to 26% of people between the ages of 15 and 49 infected." This is a here-and-now emergency. It is not a hypothetical or potential emergency. These people will die without access to pharmaceutical drugs.
Your response to this emergency should be to find ways to save lives. But look what you are doing.
-You are aggressively seeking the repeal of legislation in South Africa that would permit that country to do what nations in Europe do, use parallel imports to buy drugs at the best world price. South Africa wants to use market forces to cut drug costs. You are pushing to protect pharmaceutical companies from global competition, thereby forcing the South Africa people to pay premiums to buy drugs.
-You are punishing South Africa for even speaking out in favor of compulsory licensing of HIV/AIDS and other essential medicines. The April 30, 1999 report on South Africa complains that:
During the past year, South African representatives have led a faction of nations in the World Health Organization (WHO) in calling for a reduction in the level of protection provided for pharmaceuticals in TRIPS.
In fact, everything South Africa is seeking to do is legal under the WTO/TRIPS agreement, so this and countless other statements by US government officials are bald lies. But regardless, the exercise of free speech in international forums is an astonishing basis for trade sanctions. As an elected official, indeed, as a human, how would you act if 20 percent of all sexually active young people in the United States were infected with a fatal disease, and a foreign country was trying to prevent you from purchasing drugs on the global market to save money, and was preventing you from licensing firms to manufacture life saving medicines? Would you simply show up at the World Health Assembly and docilely applaud the actions of that country? Even if that foreign country was engaged in a relentless public relations campaign to label every legal action as a form of piracy or lawlessness? At what point would you have the guts to tell the world the truth, and to speak out on behalf of millions of infected young men and women?
-You are punishing South Africa for giving approval to generic versions of Taxol, a cancer drug that was invented by the US government. There are aspects of the US government complaint about Taxol that are absurd, on technical grounds, such as the insistence that South Africa extend longer periods of data exclusivity than are required in the United States. But the larger issue is more basic. Why on earth should Vice President Al Gore or any other US government employee seek to prevent global competition for Taxol, a life saving cancer drug that was invented and developed by the US National Institutes of Health? Taxol was in NIH sponsored Phase III trials before the Bush Administration gave BMS exclusive rights to use NIH research for drug approvals. What is the moral basis for extending the BMS monopoly on Taxol in a country that is so poor?
As the Vice President of the United States you are in a position to do much good or much harm in the world. US voters will soon be asked to determine if you should be the next President of the United States. Please explain why they should choose you.
Sincerely,
James Love
Director
Consumer Project on Technology
Washington, DC
Dr. Bernard Pécoul
Project Director
Access to Essential Drugs
Médecins Sans Frontières
Geneva, Switerland
Joelle Tanguy
Executive Director
Doctors Without
Borders/Medecins Sans
Frontieres USA
Eric Sawyer
Executive Director
HIV/AIDS Human Rights Project
NY, NY
Kim Nichols
Development Director
African Services Committee,
Inc.
Bas van der Heide
Director
Health Action International
Europe
Beryl Leach
Africa Program Coordinator
Health Action International
Lori Wallach
Director
Global Trade Watch
Washington, DC
Professor Richard Laing
Associate Professor,
Department of International
Health, Boston University
Robert Weissman
Co-Director, Essential Action
Washington, DC
Bob Lederer
Senior Editor
POZ Magazine
Steve Suppan, PhD
Director of Research
Institute for Agriculture and
Trade
Axel Delmotte
Act Up - Paris
Professor Patrick Bond
University of the
Witwatersrand
Graduate School of Public and
Development Management
Johannesburg, South Africa
Clarence Mini, MD
Treatment Action Campaign
Johannesburg, Gauteng
Province, South Africa
Ellen 't Hoen
International Drug Policy
Consultant
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Mike Scherer
Aetna Professor of Public
Policy
John F. Kennedy School of
Government
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass
John S. James
Editor and publisher
AIDS Treatment News
San Francisco, CA
David Scondras
President, Search for a Cure
Dr.Mira Shiva
Coordinator
All India Drug Action Network
New Delhi, India
Dr. Amir Attaran, LL.B.
Director
The Malaria Project, CSRL
Washington, DC USA
Andrew Herxheimer
Emeritus Fellow
UK Cochrane Centre
London, UK
Anna Ponte
AVVA Frontera Gran Sabana
Caracas, Venezuela
Alejandro Argumedo
Coordinator
Indigenous Peoples'
Biodiversity Network
Cusco, PERU
Ian Stevens
Falmouth
Cornwall, UK
Alex LoCascio
United Food and Commercial
Workers
Lynchburg, VA, USA
David C. Korten
President
The People-Centered
Development Forum
U.S.A.
Parshu Ram Tamang
Tribhuvan University
Kathmandu, Nepal
Dr. Dale A. Hathaway
Professor of Political Science
Butler University
Indianapolis, IN U.S.A.
Mr. Wiert P. Wiertsema
Policy Coordinator
Both ENDS
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Oystein Tveter
Human Rights Lawyer
Vinderen, Oslo, Norway
John Y. Jones
Director
DiS - Diakonhjemmet
internasjonale Senter
OSLO, NORWAY
LOT S. MIRANDA
Country Director
Swiss Interchurch Aid Cambodia
Program
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Christopher T. Arata
CEO
Cayucos, California, USA
Vlady Rivera
Information Officer
Farmer-Scientist
Partnership for Development
Philippines
Robert Anderson
MPSRAST
New Zealand
Debal Deb
Centre for Interdisciplinary
Studies
Barrackpore, West Bengal,
India
May Waddington
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Tim Luckett
University of Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire, England.
Dr. David Fig
University of the
Witwatersrand
Johannesburg, South Africa
Peter McLaverty
Senior Lecturer
University of Luton
Luton, England
Toine Pieters
Medical Historian, School of
Medicine
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Daniel Querol
Managua, Nicaragua
Dr. Ernst von Weizsaecker
Member of the Federal
Parliament (Bundestag), for
the ruling SPD
Daniel J. Koenig, Ph.D.
Professor
University of Victoria
Victoria, British Columbia,
Canada
Ms. Diana Smith
Paris, France
Dashiell Love
Olympia WA, USA
Joe Goozeff
Randwick, N.S.W. Australia
Cherrel Africa
Cape Town Democracy Centre
Institute for Democracy in SA
South Africa
Arnold Ward
GeneEthics Network and South
Australian Genetic Food
Information Network
Adelaide, South Australia,
Australia
Pierre Chirac
MSF
Michael R. Pitula
Ames, Iowa, U.S.A.
Etienne Vernet
Campaign Coordinator on
genetic engineering
Paris, France
Richard Levins
Harvard School of Public
Health
Val Dusek
Associate Prof. of Philosophy
University of NH
Durham, NH
Rev. Douglas B. Hunt
Washington & UN Representative
United Church of Christ
Network for Environmental and
Economic Responsibility
Wheaton, MD USA
George Salzman
Physics Dept
Univ of Massachusetts
Boston, MA USA
Phoebe Barnard (PhD)
National Coordinator
Namibian Biodiversity Program
Windhoek, Namibia
Mara Bird
Center for International
Studies, University of
Southern California
Los Angeles, CA United States
of America
Sid Shniad
Research Director
Telecommunications Workers
Union
Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada
Uri Strauss
Neil Young Institute
Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada
Jesse Vorst
Professor of Economics
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Canada
Michael Ash
PhD Candidate
Dept. of Economics, UC
Berkeley
Berkeley, California, USA
Gladys Schmitz
SSND (School Sister of Notre
Dame)
Mankato, MN, USA
Yash Tandon
Professor
International South Group
Network
Harare, Zimbabwe
Angus Kerr
Engineer
Durban, Kwazulu-Natal, South
Africa
Jaroen Compeerapap
Resident fellow
International Economic Law and
Dispute Settlement, Erasmus
University
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Elaine Bernard
Executive Director
Harvard Trade Union Program
Cambridge, MA, USA
Daniel Querol
Managua NICARAGUA
Ann C. Davidson
Principal
Davidson Library Services
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Stephen Morey
Monash University
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Roy J. Kaye
Lynnwood, WA U.S.A.
Ken Orzel
Pompano Beach, Fl USA
David Hoos, M.D. M.P.H.
Consultant
AIDS Institute, NY State
Department of Health
New York, NY
Mark Raijmakers
Programme coordinator
Wemos Foundation
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Kate O'Connell
Patrice Newell
Director
The Elmswood Press
Australia
Jef Keighley,
National Representative
Canadian Auto Workers
New Westminster, B.C., Canada
John Lamperti
Professor
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH, USA
David Banta
Senior Researcher
Netherlands Organization for
Applied Scientific Research
Leiden, The Netherlands
Sarah Sexton/Larry
Lohmann/Nicholas
Hildyard/Tracey Clunies Ross
THE CORNER HOUSE
Sturminster Newton, Dorset
BRITAIN
P Marc Schwartz
Waumandee, Wisc, USA
Francisco Arroyo G.D.
Coordinador de Programas
Centro de Investigación y
Capacitación Rural A.C.
Cd. de México, México
Gabriela C. Flora
Program Associate in
Agricultural Biotechnologies
Institute for Agriculture and
Trade Policy
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Rev. Des McGillicuddy
Justice & Peace Officer
Mill Hill Missionaries
London, England
Margarita Florez
Laywer
Executive Director
Centro Debate y Acción
Ambiental
Laura Maxwell Stuart
Programme Officer
South African NGO Coalition
Johannesburg, South Africa
Kerry Irish
South African National NGO
Coalition
Johannesburg, Gauteng, South
Africa
Martin Rall
ANC and SACP
Johannesburg, South Africa
Ryan Hunter
Center for Environmental
Public Advocacy
Ponicka Huta, Slovakia
Juraj Zamkovsky
Director
Friends of the Earth Slovakia
Ponicka Huta, Slovakia
Michael Niemann
Associate Professor of
International Studies
Trinity College
Hartford, CT
Norberto A. Stuart
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Geoffrey Schniewind
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Victoria S. Cashman
Middletown, Ohio, USA
Clive Swan
Kagiso GIS & IT Solutions
Johannesburg, South Africa
Damian McKeon
Greystones
Co. Wicklow, Republic of
Ireland
Paul McCartin
Father
Society of St Columban
(Columban Fathers)
Kanagawa, Japan
Al Stern
Senior Art Director
Common Health/Adient
(Pharmaceutical Advertising
Agency)
Nutley, NJ, USA
C. A. Hilgartner, MD
Director
Hilgartner & Associates
Kirksville, MO, United
States of America
Annamarie Gervais
SA citizen living in Texas
San Marcos, TX
Anton Prenneis
Highland, N.Y.
Amy Ferber
Highland, N.Y.
Alexander Rau
Student
Cornell University, University
of Oxford (England)
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Dr. Ayesha Imam
Baobab for Women's Human
Rights
Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria
Stephen Ball
Seattle, Washington, USA
Brian Cowan
Alameda, CA, USA
Michael Pease
Seattle, Washington, USA
Susan Rodriguez & Petra
Berrios
Co-Coordinators
S.M.A.R.T. University
(Sisterhood Mobilized for
AIDS/HIV Resources &
Treatment)
New York, NY, USA
Ed Schehl
Director/Producer
Raindancer Film & Video
Santa Cruz, CA
Katherine Knight
Editor, "Epicenter"
Santa Cruz, CA
Brian Ashley
The Alternative
Information & Development
Centre (AIDC)
Woodstock, Cape Town, South
Africa
Brian P. Flaherty
The Pennsylvania State
University
State College, PA, USA
Brian Schroeder
Okemos, MI USA
Robert Riedel
Dansville, NY, USA
Stephan Eric Schoenfield
Director of Software
Development
Keyspan Inc
Berkeley, CA
Carl Shoolman
Rochester, NY USA
Mary Moretti & Family
Pawtucket, RI U.S.A.
Christopher Daniel Foust
Beaumont, Texas, USA
Clionadh O' Keeffe
Student
Cork, Ireland
Corynne McSherry
Doctoral Candidate
Department of Communication,
UC San Diego
San Francisco, CA USA
Dale T. McKinley
South African Communist Party
Head Office
Braamfontein, Republic of
South Africa
David Longjohn Stanton
Boalt-Harvard Law School
Exchange, '99
David Morris
Vice President
Institute for Local Self-
Reliance,
Minneapolis, MN
David Young
Mahomet, Illinois, USA
David E. Long
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
David Gofstein
Phoenix, AZ USA
Dina Lozofsky
Los Angeles, CA USA
Byron Dolan
Hoboken, NJ, USA
Alan Berkman, MD
Medical Specialist
HIV Center for Clinical and
Behavioral Studies, Columbia
University
New York, NY
Elina Hemminki
Prof.
Helsinki, Finland
Eric F. Miller
San Jose, CA, USA
Ernst Mayer
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Mechanical &
Aerospace Engineering
Case Western Reserve
University
Cleveland, OH
Everett L. Williams, II
Democrat
Canyon Lake, TX USA
Faye Powell
Professor, Social Sciences
Librarian
Portland State University
Portland, Oregon U.S.A.
Edgar F. Starr
Tampa, Florida, USA
Fred Turner
Ph.D. Candidate
University of California, San
Diego
La Jolla, CA
Liz Hosken
Director
Gaia Foundation
London, UK
Mr. Jody Gatwood
Associate Professor
The Catholic University of
America
Washington, DC USA
Geraldine Gomez
Goleta, CA, U.S.A.
Gordon Irlam
San Francisco, CA, USA
Madras, Tamil Nadu, India
Harriet Harmon
Teacher
Los Angeles, CA U.S.A.
Ismael Galve-Roperh
Dept. of Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology I
School of Biology, Complutense
University
Madrid, SPAIN
James M Wright, MD, PhD,
FRCP(C)
Associate Professor
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC, CANADA
Jean Grossholtz
South Hadley, MA
James W. Sanders
Chief Technical Officer
Steppingstones Designs
Tucson, AZ US
Jim Strichartz
Law Offices of James L.
Strichartz
Seattle, WA
Prof. Joan P. Mencher
Lehman College of CUNY.
Joel Lexchin MD
Emergency Physician
Toronto General Hospital
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Joey Sum
Lexington, KY, USA
John Andrew
Professor and chair of History
Franklin & Marshall College
Lancaster, PA USA
Johndan Johnson-Eilola, PhD
Director of Professional
Writing
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN, USA
Jonathan A. Zylstra
Student
Arlington, WA USA
Jonathan Silverstone
Washington, DC
Kamal Suffoletta
San Francisco, CA. 94115
Katherine Sarah Lysons
GIS Technical Specialist
CADCORP
Stevenage, Hertfordshire
ENGLAND
Kim Nichols
Development Director
African Services Committee,
Inc.
New York, NY
Kuzuha Mutsumi
Nakahashi kanazawa, JAPAN
C.C. Latshaw
Lakewood, WA, USA
Avram Rips
Maplewood, NJ
Tina Teong
Subang Jaya, Selangor,
Malaysia
Luis Kemnitzer
Professor Emeritus
San Francisco State University
San Francisco CA, USA
Cheri Stafford
BBA, M.S.Th., MSEd
Mt. Kisco, NY UNITED STATES
Marie Smoes
Silver Spring, MD USA
Marjorie Power
Newsletter editor
Older Women's League- Green
Mountain Chapter
Montpelier, VT, USA
Mark Williams
Portland, OR USA
Dr. Mary C. Carras
Professor Emerita,Rutgers
University
Camden, NJ - USA
Matthew Fitt
Student of Law
U.C.Hastings
San Francisco, CA, USA
Melvin J. Roseman
Encino, CA, USA
Melinda Johnston
Vancouver, BC Canada
A. Michael Froomkin
Professor of Law
U. Miami School of Law
Coral Gables, FL USA
Michael McGuire
Information/Technology
Coordinator
Maryland Cooperative Extension
Service
Washington DC
Michail Rassool,
Editor
Idasa Publishing,
Cape Town, South Africa
Michael Seifert
Roman Catholic priest
Washington Province of the
Society of Mary
Brownsville, Texas, USA
Tewolde & Sue
Institute for Sustainable
Development
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Eric George
New Orleans, LA
Nathan Ford
Medecins Sans Frontieres
United Kingdon
Nicholas Sammond
University of California, San
Diego
San Francisco, CA, USA
Pam Raby
Albany, OR, US
Perry Papka
Institute of Social and
Economic Research, University
of Alaska-Anchorage
Anchorage, AK
Peter Schachte
Lecturer
The University of Melbourne
Parkville, Victoria, Australia
Philip Heede
Alleroed, Denmark
J. G. Krishnayya
Executive Director
Systems Research Institute
PUNE, INDIA
Richard Crawford
Lecturer in Information Age
Ethics
Univ. of Calif, Davis
Davis, CA, USA
Richard Gerace
Falmouth, Massachusetts
Robert M. Akscyn
President
Knowledge Systems
Export, PA, USA
Robert Braunwart
Seattle, Wash., U.S.A.
Robert E. van Patten, Ph.D.,
P.E.
Consultant
Bellbrook, OH USA
Anne-Sophie Robilliard
Research Analyst
IFPRI
Washington, DC, USA
Roland D. Kelso
Pastor
Catholic Church
Ninomiya, Kanagawa-ken Japan
Ron Regan Jr
Somerville, MA, 02145 USA
Russell Hoover
Editor
American Book Review
posted by History Is A Weapon at 6:33 AM
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