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Washington DC, USTR OFFICE DEMO: 1000 people with HIV/AIDS and their supporters from ACT UP Philadelphia and the Health GAP Coalition will march and rally on Wednesday, demanding an end to US trade policy that threatens and enforces sanctions against countries utilizing legal methods for accessing essential medications. A larger-than-life puppet depicting US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky as a marionette whose strings are pulled by drug industry executives, "blood money," dollar bills featuring Barshefsky's image, and empty pill bottles symbolizing the effect of USTR bullying of nations hard-hit by HIV/AIDS will be featured. 15 people block the street in front of the USTR building and are arrested.

Charlene Barshefsky uses the trading power and markets of the United States to restrict developing countries from accessing life saving medicines via WTO authorized trade practices. Barshefsky, collaborating overtly with drug manufacturers, routinely instigates penalties and sanctions against poor nations utilizing compulsory licensing or parallel importing. A former timber industry lobbyist, Barshefsky has made heavy-handed enforcement, at the bidding of industry, a hallmark of her rule of USTR.

"The requests for international sanctions coming from PhRMA, the drug company lobby, are uncritically adopted by Barshefsky office," said Paul Davis of ACT UP Philadelphia, referring to USTR's Special 301 Watch List. "PhRMA is dictating the trade policy of this country. Barshefsky parrots the drug company lie that increasing access to drugs in developing nations will destroy pharmaceutical research. Not only is the majority of drug development in the United States heavily subsidized by U.S. tax payers, most drug companies spend far more on advertising and marketing than research. The pharmaceutical industry is the planet's most profitable industry*, and it is calling the shots for Barshefsky. Big PhRMA would let millions die rather than letting the secret out ñ drugs are cheap to make." [*Fortune 500 web page]

90% of HIV cases occur in nations with virtually no access to effective treatments, thus virtually ensuring the suffering and early death of 30 million people. In Zambia, the chance that a 15-year-old will die of AIDS is 60%, according to Callisto Madavo, Regional Director of the World Bank.

After a series of protests, including a 700-person demonstration at a Gore fundraiser in Philadelphia, Barshefsky was recently directed by Vice President Gore to remove all U.S. obstructions to South Africa's compulsory licensing and parallel importing efforts. One in eight South Africans is living with HIV. However, according to Clinton/Gore Administration sources, the agreement with South Africa is an "exception," and the USTR will continue U.S. efforts to block developing countries efforts to produce essential medicines. Protesters demand that all nations be permitted to exercise their rights to provide life-saving medicines, and demand that USTR support countries seeking greater access to medications at the WTO ministerial in Seattle this Fall. Barshefsky is expected to advocate for the weakening of WTO agreements permitting compulsory licensing and parallel importing, particularly with regards to medication.

"Essential medications are not luxuries. They are life-saving, and countries are permitted to manufacture them under international treaties." said Willie Parker, director of the ACT UP Gospel Choir. "We will raise our voices to say "no more" to a public servant using our tax dollars to kill millions, simply because this Administration cares more for drug company whims than human lives."

Over the past six months, protesters have followed Vice President Gore around the country, accusing him of "Medical Apartheid," siding with the pharmaceutical industry in the battle to guard its patent rights at the expense of human lives. They pledge that disruptions and protests will not cease until the Administration transforms trade policy to support access to essential medications, rather than pharmaceutical companies placing profit before human lives.

"Saving lives in Thailand, Brazil and India is just as vital as saving lives in South Africa," explained Chris Kimmenez of ACT UP Philadelphia. "The United States must cease its harassment of sovereign nations that are taking legal measures to provide essential medications. The U.S. has failed to implement our own laws that could pave the way for drug access," he added, referring to the unused Bayh-Dole legislation (37CFR 404.7), which would allow the U.S. to issue production rights for medications whose patents are held by federal health and research agencies.

Protesters will distribute a new report documenting USTR's role in limiting access to essential medications, including:

- Thailand, home to approximately one million people with AIDS, where the US government has pressed the government to give up compulsory licensing, parallel imports and price controls on pharmaceuticals. At Bamrasnaradura Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, only twenty out of two thousand patient who seek treatment each month can afford the triple drug cocktails that have become the standard of care in developed countries. (Health Action International: Essential Medicines and Compulsory Licensing, Nathan Ford and Daniel Berman, 1999; www.haiweb.org/ campaign/cl/mtgsum.html)

- In India, where more than 700 million people live in dire poverty, the US government has lobbied against compulsory licensing of essential medicines and strong-armed the passage of harmful legislation.

- Throughout Central and Latin America, the US has lobbied against the use of compulsory licensing and parallel imports of essential medicines. On Wednesday, September 8, people with HIV, diabetics and their allies protested across Brazil. While their nation's constitution guarantees access to medicine as a human right, the production of generic medication through compulsory licensing has been all but eliminated in recent years due to US pressure bankrupting public health programs and leaving millions without treatment.

- In Egypt, the US government has reportedly threatened to cut off $500 million in US Economic aid, if the Egyptian government joins in developing country lobbying efforts on pharmaceutical policies and the WTO.

Compulsory licensing is the process whereby a country issues a permit for manufacturing a generic version of a patented product, paying a royalty to the patent-holder. Parallel importing is the process of shopping around the globe for the best price for a patented product. Both practices are legal and routinely utilized by many industrialized nations. However, Barshefsky takes numerous unilateral actions against poor countries to protect drug manufacturers' monopoly on their products. Most 'essential medicines' are inexpensive to manufacture, and were typically researched and developed largely with U.S. tax dollars.

Compulsory licensing finds its legal basis in Article 31 of the World Trade Organization's TRIPS agreement. It states that Member States may "use the subject of a patent without the authorization of a right holder, including use by the government or third parties authorized by the government," when justified in the public interest.

Michael Kantor, Barshefsky's predecessor, noted that:
"TRIPS specifically sets out a considerable number of conditions under which compulsory licensing may be utilized for use by those countries wishing to impose limits on intellectual property within its own borders-- [and] to exclude entirely from the scope of patentable subject matter a range of inventions, including-- surgical and therapeutic methods-- The innovator pharmaceutical companies were not enthusiastic supporters of these provisions, but they were accepted nevertheless by this Administration." (Feb 1, 1996 letter; www.cptech.org/pgharm/cl.html)

Parallel importing is specifically excluded from the TRIPS amendment, meaning that it is impossible for such measures to be in violation of TRIPS.

"Barshefsky flouts international trade agreements like racist sheriffs used Jim Crow laws," said Roy Hayes, ACT UP Philadelphia member who will risk arrest Wednesday, "She interprets the law as she sees fit, then unleashes her dogs and guns to block human rights."

Demands of the Health GAP Coalition o The U.S.T.R. and other relevant department heads must cease actions interfering with efforts by poor countries to increase access to essential medicines; the announced terms of Gore's arrangement with South Africa must become U.S. global trade policy;

"Is Ambassador Barshefsky a corporate lapdog, or a killer pit bull for big PhRMA? Public USTR documents threaten sanctions against countries that stand up for their legal right to provide medication." asked ACT UP Philadelphia member Paul Davis. "We demand that Charlene Barshefsky implement policies that value human lives more than drug company profits," he continued.

- The USTR must support, rather than oppose, the campaign of poor nations, including Venezuela, Uganda, and Sri Lanka to broaden the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) agreement during the WTO Ministerial in Seattle in November to more explicitly exempt essential medicines from the patent system for countries unable to afford "Apartheid prices."

- The USTR must remove South Africa from the 301 Watch List, which targets nations for a wide array of U.S. trade sanctions.

"South Africa was placed on the 301 Watch List during its trade dispute with Gore and Barshefsky over the use of compulsory licensing and parallel importing. If the dispute has been settled like Gore wants us to believe, then South Africa should be removed from the list," said ACT UP Philadelphia's Asia Russell

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