Obama Fails To Win Over Pharma On TPP

[pampango]

Source: Politico

Top pharmaceutical industry executives walked out of a meeting at the White House late Thursday unmoved on their disappointment that the landmark trade pact falls short of their demands for 12 years of monopoly protection for biologic medicines.

Now the compromise threatens to blow up the deal in Congress. “A good compromise usually results in something of greater overall value for all the parties involved,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “And, at least according to the information now available, it is unclear whether this administration achieved that kind of outcome for American innovators.”

Besides expressing frustration with the deal, the drug industry hasn’t yet indicated how it will play its cards. One industry source said pharma wants to see all the details of the deal in writing first, adding its strategy is pretty “formless,” right now.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/politico-pulse/2015/10/pulse-with-mccarthy-out-will-ryan-run-obama-courts-pharma-for-support-on-tpp-2015-the-year-we-could-finally-tweak-the-aca-210639

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"... at least according to the information now available. ... One industry source said pharma wants to see all the details of the deal in writing ..." Wouldn't we all. Something tells me they have seen a lot more of it than most of the rest of us have, at least the parts that pertain to their industry.

[yallerdawg]

1. It's an upside-down world now.

I would think if Big Pharma walked out, we should be celebrating!

They didn't get what they wanted! That's a positive!

That quote from Orrin Hatch is insane! A good compromise results in "greater overall value" for everyone?

Bullshit.

A good compromise by definition is a deal where all parties give up part of their demands (everyone is pissed!)

A pissed-off Big Pharma is a good thing!

[JDPriestly]

12. "for everyone"? Are all of us included in "everyone"?

So far, none of these trade deals have brought any value to most of us.

I want to see the list of all who took part in the trade negotiations.

I want to see what groups and interests they represented.

Who is included in the "everyone"?

Cause I don't think I am.

[Lint Head]

2. Was there a pier nearby? Take a long walk maybe?

[groundloop]

3. If Big Pharma doesn't like TPP I may have to rethink my position on it

Poor babies, can't have 12 years of monopolistic protections.

[BlueJazz]

4. "achieved that kind of outcome for American innovators.” Oh Yeah, that's why we consumers love..

...going bankrupt over the price of medicine. The system should have been setup a long time ago where taxpayers fund Government labs to research, discover and sell medicine at little-markup prices.

[Eric J in MN]

19. Exactly. Drug research should be publicly funded

...and in the public domain.

[SoapBox]

5. Screw Big Pharma.

Let's see some faces and names of who in this evil industry, walked out.

[roguevalley]

22. a pox on both their houses. both side. all of them. Obama included

[lark]

6. Greedy, arrogant, spoiled baby 1%ers

They want to make sure their products are as high priced as possible and pissed that they didn't 100% of what they want. Who cares if people die because they can't afford the high prices, it's all about them. How dare Obama not give them everything they wanted. They still got a hell of a lot, based on what we've heard. But is anything ever enough for these cads?

[Turn CO Blue]

7. Innovators? Don't they get a lot of their so-called innovative ideas from scooping up patents

based on existing drugs (other people's sweat and ideas and research) and then playing legal tricks to extend those patents past 20 years?

And isn't their business model also based on taking existing folk treatments and patenting, marketing and branding them?

Didn't some PharmaCo actually successfully do the most absurd thing and patent a strain of lacto bacteria l. reuteri that has been in mother's milk since the DAWN of man, and who knows how many species untold millennia before that ???

And haven't some big Pharma companies been known to get many of their "innovations" by sending spies or hacking to gain access to university lab work, or other companies' research??

Innovators? Yeah, right. Perhaps on occasion.

I have no doubt that many of the researchers and scientists employed in Big Pharma can be proud of their work and innovation - but as usual, the GUYS IN BUSINESS SUITS have corrupted the pharmaceutical industry into a bastion of amoral greed.

[karynnj]

8. Paul Krrugman, without supporting the deal, noted that the agreement was better than was expected

That the changes since 2012 when HRC said it was the "gold standard" were changes in the direction we would like. His point being that based on what was in the agreement in 2012 and what is known of the actual agreement, HRC's flip flop doesn't make sense based on the treaty itself. http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/tpp-take-two/

It would be funny if when looked at the treaty is either not bad or actually good. At that point, it would be tricky for HRC flip again AND claim credit for it.

I assume the polling among Democrats must have shown that it was very unpopular, because HRC actually had staked a large part of her accomplishments as SoS with the "tilt to Asia" which was mostly this treaty. (Note this treaty does not and did not include China.)

[pampango]

14. "I assume the polling among Democrats must have shown that it was very unpopular ..."

If so, I haven't seen it. Polls have shown the republican base more opposed to it for years.

The polling on all sides may change when the text is released. If Big Pharma was surprised by the final text or at least their current understanding of it, it is no wonder that the rest of us don't know what is in it.

[karynnj]

18. All true -- and Pharma being surprised means that, DU not withstanding, they did not write it.

[randome]

9. So pharmaceuticals don't get what they want. Big Tobacco doesn't get what it wants.

And yet the TPP, to hear tell of it on DU, is the single greatest atrocity to ever befall Mankind!

And lest we forget: the TPP is further proof that Obama is nothing but a give-away-the-kitchen-sink corporatist!

{Sigh}
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]

[hollysmom]

11. good news, you weren't shot in the heart, lets not punish the guy who shot you in the liver and

lungs.
Even though some businesses are unhappy,. the Kochs are full out supporting this bill, does that give you pause?
There will still be a business panel decided what laws this country can pass.

[restorefreedom]

10. 12 years???

fuck them

[november3rd]

13. "American innovators"

is that Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) quite the statesman, though?

Only problem is, if they're so American, why do they need these trade deals to protect their price-gouging their own fellow-citizens?

[forest444]

15. Or ANYONE, really.

http://www.citizen.org/documents/polling-memo.pdf

[Blue_Tires]

16. If big pharm hates it then it must be good...

[CharlotteVale]

17. What does that mean? They only got 99.999% of what they wanted?

[awoke_in_2003]

21. Just like ACA...

it is a boon for the insurance industry.

[stuffmatters]

20. Just theater/propaganda. I bet Pharma got everything they want.

[Art_from_Ark]

23. The two- and four-legged critters inside the farmhouse

are having a good laugh about the kabuki show they are putting on for us four-legged critters watching from the outside.