Does the US administration have ulterior motives for its campaign against Israel on pharmaceutical issues? Is the campaign linked to contributions by major pharmaceutical companies to the Republican party? It’s worth a close look.
The US is insisting that Israel guarantee the exclusivity of information included in ethical drug files submitted to the Ministry of Health in Jerusalem for purposes of obtaining permission to market those drugs in Israel. The US asserts that the information is being made available to Israel generic drug companies, headed by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA), which can use it to promote and produce competing generic versions of the drugs.
The Bush administration considers the matter to be so important that it is threatening to put Israel back on the priority watch list for copyright violations, unless the administration’s demands are accepted. The draft law approved by the cabinet two weeks ago grants marketing exclusivity, not data exclusivity. The US is enraged, and the saga is far from over.
As in many cases in the US, however, there may be a need in this case to follow the money trail, as Deep Throat told Bob Woodward during the Watergate affair. Major pharmaceutical companies donate millions of dollars to both US political parties, presidential candidates, congressional candidates, and thousands of other candidates for national and local offices. Obviously, they expect something in return.
The connection is very obvious in the case of the Republican party and the pharmaceutical companies. Charles Lewis’s book, “The Buying of the President 2004,” includes a list of 50 large donors to the Republicans and Democrats in 1978-2003. The list of the 30 leading contributors to the Republican party includes five concerns with a direct interest in the campaign against Israel on pharmaceutical issues.
Four of the five are leading drug manufacturers. Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) is in fourth place, with donations totaling $5.58 million. Bristol-Myers-Squibb (NYSE: BMY) is in sixteenth place with $3.29 million, GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE, LSE: GSK) is in 26th place with $2.53 million, and Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) is in 29th place with $2.49 million.
Furthermore, Pharma, The Association of the Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies, which is in fourteenth place on the list with $3.42 million, is spearheading the struggle for information exclusivity. The list does not includes the current year, 2004, a year in which election campaigns are taking place, and in which the matter of donations is only growing in significance.
The dispute between Israel and the US did not begin when the Bush administration took office, but the controversy has greatly intensified over the past three and a half years. That may be linked to the fact that Lewis’s corresponding list for the Democratic party includes neither any of the major pharmaceutical companies, nor Pharma itself.
The US may be acting out of moral, ethical, and global considerations, as it claims. It is also possible, however, that a considerable measure of economic motive is involved, as well as quid pro quo. Will this make Israel’s task in the contest any easier? The opposite is almost certainly true.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on September 26, 2004