Civil Society Groups Write Companies Implicated in PharmaGate Leaks

On February 24, Public Citizen joined HealthGAP, Knowledge Ecology International, SECTION27, and Treatment Action Campaign in writing companies implicated in the leaked PharmaGate documents. See the letter below, as well as the personalized letters to each company. This page will be updated with responses from the companies as we receive them.

Leaked Documents:

• Leaked proposal from Public Affairs Engagement prepared for IPASA and PhRMA
• Leaked email from Michael Azrak, Merck’s Managing Director for Southern and East Africa

Dear [head of company],

The January 17 Mail & Guardian story entitled “Motsoaledi: Big pharma’s ‘satanic’ plot is genocide” reported on a proposal made by the firm Public Affairs Engagement to the Innovative Pharmaceutical Association of South Africa (IPASA) and the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), outlining a plan to campaign against patent law reform in South Africa. An email message from by Michael Azrak, Merck’s Managing Director for Southern and East Africa, was sent to two dozen pharmaceutical and medical device makers in South Africa, and seems to suggest that your company was part of the IPASA-led industry group collaborating to campaign against patent law reform and which had solicited the proposal from Public Affairs Engagement.

As you know, the Public Affairs Engagement proposal and, more generally, the industry initiative against patent law reform have generated substantial controversy. We are writing to ask you to clarify your company’s position on these matters, including whether it supports the IPASA-led campaign against patent law reform, whether it supported the solicitation of the Public Affairs Engagement proposal, the specific form this support took, and whether and why it supported or did not support the apparent decision by IPASA to reject the proposal.

Thank you for your attention to this letter. We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Health GAP
Knowledge Ecology International
Public Citizen
SECTION27
Treatment Action Campaign