<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/health-care/why-doctors-without-borders-is-lobbying-against-obama-s-trade-deal-20150510" style="color: purple;" class="">http://www.nationaljournal.com/health-care/why-doctors-without-borders-is-lobbying-against-obama-s-trade-deal-20150510</a><o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin: 0in 0in 3.75pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center; line-height: 39pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><b class=""><span style="font-size: 36pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(37, 37, 37);" class="">Why Doctors Without Borders Is Lobbying Against Obama’s Trade Deal<o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin: 0in 0in 3.75pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center; line-height: 16.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(37, 37, 37);" class="">The physicians group warns that the Trans-Pacific Partnership would lock in high drug prices.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">National Journal<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">By Dylan Scott<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">May 10, 2015<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">President Obama's pending trade deal has attracted plenty of critics, but one might be more surprising than the rest: Doctors Without Borders, the humanitarian organization better known for swooping into epidemic-struck countries than lobbying officials in Washington.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; widows: 1;" class=""><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">The physicians group has quietly been opposing the emerging Trans-Pacific Partnership for a few years now, but its efforts are growing more public. It sent multiple letters to Obama in the past few months, as the congressional debate about giving the president fast-track authority has ramped up, warning about the implications for drug costs in other countries. And it is putting up subway ads on the D.C. Metro.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; widows: 1;" class=""><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">The Nobel Peace Prize-winning group frequently does policy work in developing countries, said Judit Rius Sanjuan, who oversees Doctors Without Borders' drug access campaign in the United States, in a phone interview. But such a robust effort here "is not usual practice for us."<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; widows: 1;" class=""><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">"It's not usual business for us, and the reason is because we're very worried," she said. "We are doing anything we can to make sure the public is aware."<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; widows: 1;" class=""><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">The organization's worry: Drug costs.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; widows: 1;" class=""><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">The concern, Sanjuan said, is that the deal would require the dozen or so participating countries to amend intellectual property law, including patent rules, to give pharmaceutical companies more exclusive time on the market. Those fears were sparked by a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://wikileaks.org/tpp-ip2/attack-on-affordable-cancer-treatments.html" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(7, 114, 177);" class="">2013 WikiLeaks disclosure</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>on the TPP negotiations.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; widows: 1;" class=""><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">"It would force them to change the law of many of these countries that are currently negotiating to create new intellectual property protections for pharmaceutical drugs, including but not limited to patents," Sanjuan said of the deal's reported provisions. "The effects of these new obligations would limit generic competition and therefore increase the cost of medicine."<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; widows: 1;" class=""><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">One of the general criticisms of drug regulations and patent law in many Western countries is that they prevent generic drugs from entering the market for years or even decades and otherwise stifle competition, which keep drug prices high. The pharmaceutical industry counters by arguing that firms need to be able to recoup their investments for failed as well as successful drugs so they can continue pursuing research on new medicines, and market exclusivity helps them do that.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; widows: 1;" class=""><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">PhRMA, its Washington trade group,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.phrma.org/what-the-trans-pacific-partnership-means-for-intellectual-property" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(7, 114, 177);" class="">has urged</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>the Obama administration to make intellectual property protection "a paramount goal" of the TPP deal because it would "protect American innovation and spur the continued investments in R&D that will lead to life-saving medicines and more high-paying jobs for our U.S. workers." The group also has <a href="http://www.phrma.org/note-media-elected-officials-support-12-years-data-protection-tpp" target="_blank" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(7, 114, 177);" class="">highlighted</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>bipartisan from members of Congress from both parties for such provisions in the pact.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; widows: 1;" class=""><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">Past trade deals have made Doctors Without Borders apprehensive about this one, Sanjuan said. She referenced<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/24/international/asia/24aids.html" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(7, 114, 177);" class="">a change that India made to its patent law</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>in 2005 as part of its agreement to join the World Trade Organization. The country had long been a source of cheap AIDS medicine because of its robust generics market, but the 2005 law gave new drugs a patent monopoly similar to what exists in the United States. The group<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.msfaccess.org/sites/default/files/MSF_UTW_17th_Edition_4_b.pdf" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(7, 114, 177);" class="">has since warned</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>that the law will push prices higher as it takes further hold, with the biggest effects still to come.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">That history has informed the organization's involvement on TPP and put it at odds with the White House.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; widows: 1;" class=""><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">"MSF believes this is essential to closing the gap in access to medicines for millions of people around the world," its leaders wrote in a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/trans-pacific-partnership-letter-president-united-states-america" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(7, 114, 177);" class="">March letter</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>to Obama. "The TPP could be an opportunity to make significant progress toward these goals. Instead, in its current state, the TPP is a threat to the health of millions.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div></body></html>