Upcoming event for Cancer Thrivers and Loved ones: Feb 4 in DC: Details
My statement on access and the TPP:
TPP Threatens Access
to Medicines
Statement by Zahara
Heckscher, Breast Cancer Patient and Founder of Cancer Thriver
Statement at Press
Conference Monday, January 11, 2016 at 4:00 PM
2168 Rayburn House Office
Building
Members of Congress to
Join a Broad Coalition Against TPP Ahead of the State of the Union
January 11,2016
In 2008, I received a devastating
diagnosis: invasive breast cancer. My son had just turned 3. But today, even
though my cancer is considered advanced, and my current treatment includes
chemotherapy, I am thriving. My son is now 10 and I am happy to be a soccer mom
as well as a writer and educator.
I am alive and thriving today because
I have had access to the latest medicines for breast cancer, including
monoclonal antibodies, known as biological medicines.
Sadly, I know all too well what cancer
can mean without access to new treatments. My mother died of breast cancer in
1976, less than one year after her diagnosis, just days before my 12th
birthday.
That is why I was arrested at the TPP
negotiations in Atlanta, and why I am here today to urge Congress to reject the
TPP. The TPP will effectively take some patients backwards in time to the dark
ages of cancer treatment. It will prevent too many people with cancer – and
other life threatening illnesses – from accessing the new treatments they need
to stay alive. When science has the potential for them to be thrivers like me, living
productive lives while in treatment, or to be cured, the TPP will be a death
sentence.
According to Doctors Without Borders,
the TPP will “go down in history as the worst-ever trade agreement for access
to medicines…It’s bad for people needing access to medicines worldwide,
including in the U.S.”
How does the TPP prevent access to
medicines? Organizations including like Doctors without Borders, Public
Citizen, and Oxfam have done the detailed technical analysis, but the bottom
line is this:
First of all, in the US, if passed,
the TPP will lock in policies that will keep prices obscenely high:
·
The TPP could tie policymakers’ hands
by locking in the inability of our government to negotiate reasonable prescription
prices in any future Medicare Part D reform.
·
The TPP would prevent the reduction of
extra-long monopolies for biologic medicines -- some of which cost over
$100,000 per year -- and delay the timely development of affordable, life-saving
biosimilars.
·
The TPP would lock in perverse
incentives that encourage pharmaceutical companies to “evergreen” profits,
extending monopolies for making minor modifications to existing medicines
rather than developing new medicines.
In addition, efforts to reform our
system and reduce medical costs in the future could be challenged outside our
court system in unaccountable trade tribunals.
The high prices locked in by the TPP will
mean that in the US, insurance formularies may not cover certain new and effective
medicines, people with high deductibles may be unable to afford treatments they
need, and low-income and even middle class people may be unable to afford
co-pays that can total thousands of dollars per year for expensive medicines.
As an example, I were not in a
clinical trial, this medicine I take, palbociclib, a drug that is helping me stay
alive and thriving, could cost me over $100,000 a year because it is not
approved for the kind of breast cancer I have, even though my doctor wanted me
on it. Locking in our current system will mean more of these outrageous prices
and a resulting lack of access to life saving medicines.
And for those of you who think you are
not affected because you are healthy – think again. Propping up higher costs
for medicines will ultimately increase insurance premiums for everyone, as well
as taxes to cover Medicare and other government programs that pay for drugs. As
economist Dean Baker has illustrated, outrageous health care costs are the
number one cause of U.S. budget problems.
Outside the US, by establishing
extended monopolies that delay production of generics and biosimilars, the TPP
will have devastating effects on individual health and health systems. The TPP
will roll back the May 10, 2007 agreement between Congressional Democrats and
the Bush Administration that promoted access to medicines for developing
countries. The effectiveness of our international aid dollars will be compromised.
Try telling a woman with breast cancer in Vietnam, where annual per capital
income is under $2000, that she has to pay $100,000 a year for the medicine
that would save her life. Ultimately, people will die because they will not
have access to lifesaving medicines for HIV, cancer, and other illnesses.
If passed, the TPP would be extremely
difficult to modify because all signatories would have to agree to any changes.
This means that harmful provisions may be in effect for decades, hampering not
only current policy but also future generations’ ability to improve our health
care system and control costs.
Tomorrow, Obama may try to wrap the
TPP in some nice gift wrap – for example, he may state that the TPP is needed
for companies to be able to develop new drugs. Please don't be confused by
arguments that conflate obscene profits with the ability to advance medical
research. Pharma spends more on marketing and lobbying than on research. And
much of the innovative work in developing new medicines is funded by government
and nonprofits.
The TPP is not a policy wonk issue. It
is a human issue that affects individuals like me who are fighting for our
lives. And it affects our families too.
For my mother to die of breast cancer in
the 1970s was a tragedy for our family.
For people in the US and around the
world to die unnecessary in this new millennium because of the TPP is a cruel,
premeditated, and avoidable catastrophe.
I urge all members of Congress to
serve the interests of your constituents, of public health, of fiscal
responsibility, and of democracy. I urge you to vote against the TPP.
# # #
Zahara Heckscher is a breast cancer
patient, writer and educator who lives in Washington, DC. She has a BA in
Biology from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, and an MA in International
Development from American University. She is currently in a clinical trial that
combines chemotherapy and palbociclib, and her treatment also includes the biological
medicine Xgeva, a monoclonal antibody. Zahara bikes to and from her chemo
appointments and paddles with a dragon boat team of breast cancer survivors. As
the founder of Cancer Thriver, she is dedicated to spreading the word about the
role of exercise in helping to prevent and treat breast cancer. She is a leader
in the movement of cancer patients to defeat the TPP and protect access to
affordable medicines.
that dying is the last few days of life. Everything else is living, whether or not we have cancer. Lotsa Helping Hands helps me live.
and 
.
