Big Pharma talks up Trans Pacific Partnership but profits trump patients

[Matilda]

1. Article from Independent Australia.

I've puzzled over why various leaders are so eager to sell out their people to the big corporations, and this sentence in the article caught my eye:

"The United States is pushing for the deal, partly driven by fear that China would move into the economic void the US would create were it not to negotiate a trade deal with Asia."

Makes some sense, viewed from that perspective. And of course, there have been very few Australian PMs on either side who haven't fallen over themselves to tag along behind the U.S. I can think of only one: Gough Whitlam. And Malcolm Fraser in his later years of disenchantment with the Liberal Party, but while he was PM, I think not so much.

Above all, alarm bells should ring even with the unthinking amongst us that we're expected to clap our hands with joy over a deal whose terms will remain unknown to us. Especially for Australia, with our excellent PBS, which even Abbott hasn't (yet) succeeded in ruining.

Link to the full article here: https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/tpp-deal-heralds-soaring-cost-of-medicines,7815