This US-backed Pacific trade deal could stop the poor from getting life-saving meds

This US-backed Pacific trade deal could stop the poor from getting life-saving meds
By Ioan Grillo Simeon Tegel, GlobalPost
Posted: 05/12/15, 4:00 PM PDT |

MEXICO CITY, Mexico and LIMA, Peru — As a man in a smiley doctor costume waves gigantic foam hands to an electronic beat, Guillermo Ocampo waits patiently in line to buy his prostate cancer medicine.

The bargain basement pharmacy in downtown Mexico City, Farmacias Similares, charges $17 for two weeks’ worth of the generic drug bicalutamide.

Around the corner, the patented original of the same medication sells for $83 under the brand name Casodex. That’s more than the 51-year-old security guard earns in a week.

“This medicine stops the cancer from growing and that keeps me alive,” says Ocampo, who like many Mexicans has no health insurance. “I simply couldn’t afford to pay for the patented version. I don’t know what I would do.”

Ocampo is not alone. Generic drugs have boomed in Latin America, where millions of poorer patients now rely on them to stop killer diseases and alleviate debilitating symptoms.

Just in Mexico, generics accounted for 84 percent of the medicine market last year, according to the government. That has saved the poorest Mexicans a total of $1.3 billion over the last four years.

More:
http://www.sgvtribune.com/government-and-politics/20150512/this-us-backed-pacific-trade-deal-could-stop-the-poor-from-getting-life-saving-meds

Good reads:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016122081