Patients Before Profit

A very important action that I would encourage everyone to take. See below for more information:

...India produces most of the developing world’s supply of generic medicines for HIV, cancer and other diseases. But if a giant Swiss pharmaceutical company, Novartis, gets its way, the “pharmacy to the developing world” could come to a screeching halt.

Novartis is challenging a patent law in India that prevents “evergreening” — a tactic that drug companies use to extend patents on drugs that are about to expire by making tiny tweaks to the medication. They don’t want India, the world’s largest producer of generic life-saving medicine for developing countries, to keep supplying generic HIV, malaria, and cancer medicines at affordable prices. If Novartis wins this lawsuit, it will cause millions of people worldwide to lose access to affordable medicines in the future.

Activists and groups like Doctors Without Borders, CARE and Oxfam have been working for five years to oppose this potentially disastrous decision, and the pressure is working. Just last month, they staged a massive day of action that put Novartis on the defensive. Novartis has even asked to meet with the activists to show they’re “listening”.

Now, it is all coming down to March 28th, when India’s Supreme Court is going to make its final decision. Activists have agreed to deliver our petition to Novartis just before this goes to court, as one final push to get Novartis to drop the case.

This is about more than just one company and one medicine. A Novartis victory would mean that patents would be issued for dozens of life-saving medications currently made generically, like vaccines and pediatric formulations of HIV drugs. This is a game-changing moment for global health, and we have to beat this challenge back.

For Big Pharma, patents mean profits. But for the rest of the world, harsh patents can mean denied access to life-saving vaccines, malaria medicine and cancer medications that can cost upwards of US $98,000 per year.

India has been called the “pharmacy of the developing world” because it manufactures affordable generic drugs used around the world. Now Novartis, which made billions of dollars last year in profits, wants to make sure that India’s Supreme Court overturns a law that would cut into that profit.

Above text originally featured here on the SumOfUs website.

No Sovereignty, No Point

In yesterday's Irish Times, Fintan O'Toole suggested that with regard to the upcoming referendum on the European fiscal treaty by the Irish people:

The notion of a “sovereign people” exercising that sovereignty in a referendum is a fiction.

Although it may be a particularly grim perspective, it is hard to argue with the premise, given that our rulers as Mr O'Toole calls them do not sit in Dáil Éireann.

Unfortunately, it also adds a sour taste to the recent announcement by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade that Ireland plans to sign the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) - a treaty that seeks to promote the highest, and yet most basic standards necessary for people to both enjoy and contribute to a worthwhile and just society.

The Optional Protocol enables individuals to bring complaints based on the treaty before the relevant UN body. However a quick scan of the articles contained within the ICESCR itself quickly gives rise to that sour taste as it is hard to see how, given the current state of the nation, Ireland is able or even willing to take steps towards the achievement of stated goals such as:

- the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health,
- the right of everyone to the enjoyment of just and favourable conditions of work,
- the right of everyone to social security, including social insurance.

The ICESCR is a document full of vision and hope. Unfortunately in Ireland at the moment, there is a distinct lack of vision among the political class or hope among the people.

Happy International Women's Day

Happy International Women's Day - to celebrate, here's a great video about the Mama Shujaa Wa Chakula competition:



Meanwhile in Ireland, the Anglo: Not our Debt coalition has used this day to showcase the women behind the campaign:

White Paper Review - Public Consultation

As part of the government review of the White Paper on Irish Aid, a period of public consultation has been launched.

To have your say and influence the future direction of Ireland's aid programme, get involved HERE.

Anglo: Not our Debt

A new campaign was launched in Ireland today by a group called Debt Justice Action which calls on the government to stop paying the debts of the former Anglo Irish Bank/Irish Nationwide Building Society "as a first step towards renegotiation and writedown of this unjust debt".

Check out their campaign launch video and press release:



To get involved, there is a public meeting at 7pm in the Teachers Club Parnell Square Dublin on Tuesday 24th January.

Unfriend Coal

Great stuff!



To find out what this is all about, take a look here.

Tackling the Tax Havens

There's a great website with lots of facts, figures and easy to understand explanations of all the tricky ins and outs of tax and tax havens. Very helpful for anyone working on tax justice issues.

Take a look and watch their quirky little promotional video released this month: