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A letter was sent today (July 29, 1997) by Ralph Nader,
James Love and Robert Weissman to U.S. Vice President Al Gore
The letter discusses U.S. trade policy with respect
to the South African government's recent initiatives to
broaden public access to pharmaceutical drugs. We discuss
the SA effort to permit parallel imports of pharmaceutical
drugs, broader use of generic substitution, and the approval
of competitors to Taxol, the cancer drug. This letter is in
response to significant pressures on South Africa by large
pharmaceutical companies, and to some extent, by U.S. trade
officials.
We expect to soon circulate a second letter seeking
international support for the South African government's
initiatives in these areas. Anyone who wants to be involved
the drafting of the second letter should contact
James Love <Email:love@cptech.org> or Robert Weissman
<Email:rob@essential.org>.
The full letter can be obtained by sending email
directly to James Love or Robert Weissman. Thanks.
An HTML version of this is available at:
<a href="http://www.cptech.org/pharm/goreonsa.html">