Cost of medicines

Re: The TPP could be a blow to public health, July 7 Thanks to Stephen Cornish for drawing attention to the threat to affordable medicines presented by the TransPacific Partnership. Secretive negotiations are taking place this week in Ottawa with no input from civil society on this wide-ranging trade agreement.

Millions of people die in developing countries every year because they cannot get the medicines they need to treat illnesses like HIV/AIDS.

In sub- Saharan Africa alone, where grandmothers are raising millions of vulnerable children who have been orphaned by AIDS, about 470,000 children die each year from HIV/AIDS-related causes. Medicines are a luxury beyond their reach.

Like MSF, the Grandmothers Advocacy Network is most concerned about the proposals that would extend intellectual property protection, giving pharmaceutical companies even longer monopolies on brand name drugs. Generic manufacturers will face even more hurdles and delays in making cheaper drugs available to the developing world.

While we have had no response to repeated letters to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, we take this opportunity to once again implore him to instruct Canadian negotiators to stay strong against U.S. pressure to impose more stringent restrictions on access to medicines. Angela Quinlan, Grandmothers Advocacy Network