<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class=""><a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/514914-ahead-of-a-coronavirus-vaccine-mexicos-drug-pricing-to-have-far" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class="">https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/514914-ahead-of-a-coronavirus-vaccine-mexicos-drug-pricing-to-have-far</a><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: white;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(44, 44, 44);" class="">Ahead of a coronavirus vaccine, Mexico's drug pricing to have far-reaching impacts on Americans<o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">by Reps. Rosa DeLauro, Jan Schakowsky, Earl Blumenaur, and Veronica Escobar</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;" class=""> </span></div><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">The United States and Mexico have both been slammed by the COVID-19 pandemic with more than six million U.S. cases and 185,000 deaths and Mexico surging to 606,000 cases, the eighth highest in the world. Yet amidst this global health crisis, Mexico’s Congress recently passed legislation implementing the revised North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that include new monopoly rights for pharmaceutical corporations that will restrict access to affordable medicines and hurt patients throughout North America.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">Notably, these changes were not required by the revised trade deal. Ensuring the agreement did not undermine countries’ authority to ensure their residents could access affordable drugs was a defining principle of all our work on NAFTA renegotiations.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">Democrats in Congress <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/06/business/nafta-trump-deal.html" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">rejected the original deal Trump signed in 2018</span></a> in no small part because it would have exported to Mexico and Canada many problematic aspects of the pharmaceutical regime that makes medicines here so expensive. Last year, Speaker </span><span class="rollover-people"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class=""><a href="https://thehill.com/people/nancy-pelosi" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">Nancy Pelosi</span></a></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class=""> (D-Calif.) asked three of us, Reps. Schakowsky, Blumenauer, and DeLauro, to participate in a Working Group that negotiated with U.S. Trade Representative </span><span class="rollover-people"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class=""><a href="https://thehill.com/people/robert-bob-lighthizer" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">Robert Lighthizer</span></a></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class=""> to eliminate these Big Pharma giveaways and secure other major improvements.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">We had the health of all North Americans in mind as we fought for these changes. Rep. Escobar, who represents El Paso, Texas, one of our nation’s largest border communities, made sure we knew that the most directly impacted U.S. residents were those living along the Mexico and Canadian borders. Many travel to our neighboring countries to purchase medicine they cannot afford at U.S. prices.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">Last year, one of Rep. Escobar’s constituents, Paulina, took her daughter to the doctor because she had the flu. She was billed a $200 co-pay, and her daughter was prescribed TamiFlu. It would have cost another $300 that they didn’t have to spare. However, the same medication costs under $40 in nearby Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. So, Paulina drove to a pharmacy there and bought the medicine her daughter needed.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">Paulina’s reliance on medication from Mexico to help her sick, young child is a consequence of pharmaceutical industry profiteering that is made possible by U.S. policies protecting corporations from the generic competition that reduces prices. We are all committed to changing U.S. medicine pricing policies and would not tolerate a trade agreement that locked in these policies at home or exported them to our neighbors.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">So, for six months, the Working Group did not budge, knowing that fixing this aspect of the agreement was a matter life or death for American, Mexican, and Canadian families. And we succeeded. The final agreement ensures timely access to affordable medicines and promotes innovation.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">Thus, it is especially frustrating that the Mexican Congress made last-minute amendments to the “Protection of Industrial Innovation” terms connected to the revised NAFTA’s implementing legislation that promote pharmaceutical price gouging. Worse, the specific measure, called second-use patenting, is a special threat in the COVID-19 context. If existing medicines patented for other uses are found effective to treat the <em class="">novel</em> coronavirus, this policy guarantees pharmaceutical firms can obtain new extended monopolies to set sky-high prices for COVID-related uses of an old drug.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">Notably, the U.S. Trade Representative did not inform the House of Representatives about this development. By the time we became aware, it was too late for us to engage with our counterparts in the Mexican Congress.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">This runs counter to what we negotiated in the final revised NAFTA.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">We are still <a href="https://delauro.house.gov/sites/delauro.house.gov/files/documents/06.28.2020_U.S.%20House%20Letter%20to%20Senador%20Madero%20and%20Colleagues.pdf" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">looking for answers</span></a> but fear we will uncover the tracks of the pharmaceutical industry or entities representing their interests meddling in the Mexican legislative process. Regardless of what we find, we will not stop our efforts to make medicine more affordable for our constituents and patients across the world.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">The disparities between sky-high U.S. medicine prices and affordable medicines in Mexico and Canada have long been a source of embarrassment for U.S. pharmaceutical companies. U.S. drug prices have skyrocketed so dramatically that even as the U.S. market share for generics increased from 67 to 90 percent between 2007 and 2017, the price gouging for brand name drugs still resulted in our total spending on prescription drugs jumping from $236 billion to $333 billion over the same time period.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">Certainly, the Mexican government has no obligation to engage in a costly public relations campaign for these corporations.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">The good news, however, is that it’s not too late;Mexico’s Congress can and should right this wrong. But they must act speedily, given the gravity of the public health crisis with which North Americans continue to struggle.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white;" class=""><em class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">Reps. </span></em><span class="rollover-people"><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class=""><a href="https://thehill.com/people/rosa-delauro" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">Rosa DeLauro</span></a></span></i></span><em class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class=""> of Connecticut, </span></em><span class="rollover-people"><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class=""><a href="https://thehill.com/people/jan-schakowsky" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">Jan Schakowsky</span></a></span></i></span><em class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class=""> of Illinois, and </span></em><span class="rollover-people"><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class=""><a href="https://thehill.com/people/earl-blumenauer" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">Earl Blumenauer</span></a></span></i></span><em class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class=""> of Oregon are members of the U.S. House of Representatives Trade Working Group, task force that negotiated the new NAFTA, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. </span></em><span class="rollover-people"><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class=""><a href="https://thehill.com/people/veronica-escobar" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class="">Veronica Escobar</span></a></span></i></span><em class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(43, 44, 48);" class=""> of Texas represents constituents directly impacted by Mexico’s medicine pricing policies.</span></em></p></div><br class=""><div class="">
Arthur Stamoulis<br class="">Citizens Trade Campaign<br class="">(202) 494-8826<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">
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