Michaud, M
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2014 race<a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2014/governor/me/maine_governor_lepage_vs_michaud_vs_cutler-3558.html"> http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2014/governor/me/maine_governor_lepage_vs_michaud_vs_cutler-3558.html</a></p></div><div>=</div><div>
</div><div>ntbcw phar,a lobbyist</div><div>
</div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/vaccine/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/vaccine/</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">comm dr</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">While global health advocates applauded the Biden administration's recent <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/05/05/transformative-hopeful-event-under-pressure-biden-backs-covid-19-vaccine-patent" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">decision</a> to support waiving intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines as <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2021/05/05/biden-administration-support-trips-waiver-critical-first-step-more-must-be-done" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">"critical,"</a> <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2021/05/05/bidens-trips-waiver-decision-transformative-hopeful-event" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">"transformative,"</a> and <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2021/05/05/bidens-support-trips-waiver-unquestionably-right-thing-do" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">"unquestionably the right thing to do,"</a> Big Pharma took a decidedly less optimistic view of the move and has been hard at work behind the scenes in a bid to thwart the policy, a <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/05/14/covid-vaccine-waiver-generic-phrma-lobby/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">report</a> published Friday by <em>The Intercept</em> revealed.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In a bid to stymie U.S. support for a proposal by India and South Africa to enact a Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver at the World Trade Organization (WTO), the pharmaceutical industry is "distributing talking points, organizing opposition, and even collecting congressional signatures in an attempt to reverse President Joe Biden's support for worldwide access to generic Covid-19 vaccines," according to <em>The Intercept's</em> Lee Fang.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Fang obtained an email from Jared Michaud, a lobbyist with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)—a trade group whose clients include vaccine developers AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Pfizer—describing how Big Pharma and sympathetic U.S. legislators are pushing lawmakers to oppose a TRIPS waiver.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The email explains that Reps. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) and Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) are leading an unreleased letter to Biden—which currently has 29 co-signers—"expressing concerns with the administration's support for waiving IP protections related to Covid-19 vaccines under the WTO TRIPS waiver."</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We urge you to contact offices and ask them to sign onto this letter," said Michaud's email.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The letter additionally claims that the TRIPS waiver would cost U.S. jobs and be a boon for China, which would "profit from our innovation."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Michaud's email contains <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20708985-trips-waiver-national-security-threats" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">talking points</a> that paint the IP waiver as a national security threat that would "irreversibly damage American innovators" and the U.S. government's "strategic engagement," while a separate document marked "confidential" claims that "waiving intellectual property will undermine the global response to the pandemic and compromise vaccine safety."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to Fang, "The metadata for the document shows that the PDF document was created by Megan Van Etten, an international public affairs specialist for PhRMA."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Fang notes that PhRMA <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?cycle=2021&id=d000000504" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">spent</a> $24 million on lobbying at the federal level last year "and is one of the biggest corporate players in election spending."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2021/05/big-pharma-shatters-q1-lobby/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=twitt_bigphrml-05/04/20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">According to</a> OpenSecrets, PhRMA has spent $8.7 million on lobbying so far this year. This, as client Pfizer has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/04/business/pfizer-covid-vaccine-profits.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">raked in $3.5 billion in profits</a> from the sale of its Covid-19 vaccine in just the first three months of 2021.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The group has long shaped drug policy not only domestically but also in the international arena," writes Fang. "PhRMA <a href="https://medium.com/righttohealth-weekly/spotlight-on-south-africa-98389c219a8d" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">led the push </a>in the late 1990s to pressure South African President Nelson Mandela to drop efforts to break patent laws and allow for the importation and manufacture of generic HIV/AIDS medications, which at the time cost an annual $10,000-$15,000 per patient."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Progressive U.S. lawmakers have taken Big Pharma and its lobbyists to task for their opposition to Covid-19 vaccine patent waivers.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Amid a global pandemic, major pharmaceutical companies are lobbying to protect billions in profits," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/03/04/outrageous-says-sanders-after-corporate-lobby-calls-sharing-vaccine-recipe-worlds" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">said</a> in March following the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's dismissal of the proposed TRIPS waiver as "misguided."
</font></p><div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</font></div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><li class="from-your-siteitem"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/04/vaccine-side-effects/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Here's the truth about the COVID vaccine side effects - Alternet.org ›</a></font></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/biden-vaccine-plan/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Republicans are trying to sabotage Biden's COVID vaccine plan ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/big-pharma/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Exposed: Big pharma's plot to twart US Covid-19 vaccine waiver ... ›</a></li></ul></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div><div>==</div>