PHM-Exch> [PHMNEWS] Genocide by big pharma. Millions will die. David Legge

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Tinashe Njanji <tinashe at phm-sa.org>

Genocide by big pharma. Millions will die

*Genocide by big pharma. Millions will die*

*The following article was written by By David Legge and published online
by John Menadue's Public Policy Journal
<https://track-mb.bra2hmail.com/click/qm594t43xree1/60d421035d47c305e0a60bf9/ee7714e24c4ab57c1de64bf75281fda972fd45a8>*

*Big pharma is fiercely opposing measures to scale up production and
distribution of COVID-19 vaccines around the world. This corporate genocide
must be named. Stop protecting crooks.*

The crimes of big tobacco, oil and asbestos recede into shade compared with
the contemporary genocide perpetrated by big pharma: deliberately limiting
vaccine supply, by refusing to share technologies, in order to maintain
prices and further inflate existing megaprofits (and dividends and bonuses).

The World Health Organization (WHO) asked pharma to share COVID-19 vaccine
technologies in March 2020; pharma sneered and the G7 confederacy supported
their refusal.

When Covax was designed, big pharma was party to the decision to limit
Covax to supplying only 20 per cent of the needs of its clients, partly in
order to prevent the emergence of a large monopsonic purchaser with
significant pricing power.

Now, while Europe and the US are headed towards 80 per cent double dose
vaccination, Africa has only enough supply to vaccinate 2 per cent of its
eligible population. Will pharma be held accountable for the avoidable
deaths that are even now taking place?

Far from it. The South African and Indian proposal for a limited term
waiver of relevant intellectual property provisions in order to disseminate
and scale up production is being fiercely opposed by pharma with the
outright support of the EU and deferral and delay by the rest of the
“liberal democracies”.

It seems that the racism which normalised slavery (in Europe and North
America) remains alive and well.

Pharma has form. In the late 1990s pharma was selling AIDS medicines in
South Africa for $10,000 per treatment year while Indian generics were
selling for $350 per treatment year. A high margin for the well-off would
yield more profit than a thin margin for ordinary folk. The fact that the
death rate among ordinary folk would be thus inflated was immaterial.

South Africa passed a law enabling the purchase and importation of
medicines from other countries, where prices were lower, but in 1997 39
pharmaceutical giants, supported by the Clinton-Gore administration, took
the South African government to court, alleging they were in breach of
their trade commitments.
There was a massive protest campaign with street marches in South Africa
and solidarity actions around the world, including in the US.

Finally, in 2001, the US withdrew its support, concerned at the damage that
was being done to the Gore presidential campaign, and the pharma case
collapsed.

It was international revulsion which arrested pharma in 2001. Corporate
genocide must be named. Stop protecting crooks.

*Nobody is safe until everybody is safe.*

*David Legge is a scholar emeritus in the School of Public Health and Human
Biosciences at La Trobe University in Melbourne and a founding member of
the People’s Health Movement.
<https://track-mb.bra2hmail.com/click/qm594t43xree1/60d421035d47c305e0a60bf9/0e5bf4a42d9c7f2453f17f94daa95ed9cde3b6db>*
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