Guillaume Long closes #Rio2023 saying an absolute priority for building a better world is rescinding corporate courts. As foreign minister of Ecuador he made a start when his government ripped up 24 investment agreements ✊ Ecuador set up a democratic commission to investigate the country’s investment deals, and found many of them were signed illegally, and none had a positive impact on the people. More than anything, they benefitted the oil sector, and were a disaster for #ClimateChange

‘Our current intellectual property model puts Big Pharma profits ahead of any consideration, including public health. It also impedes innovation.’ This morning we hear from Joe Stiglitz at #Rio2023 on why the current patent model is bad for nearly all of us. ‘You can see this during Covid, where Big Pharma put their own interests ahead of the lives and well being of literally hundreds of millions of people around the world, not to mention our economy’ Stiglitz at #Rio2023

So to be clear what’s happened, Big Pharma employed a not-for-profit to undermine South Africa’s WHO-backed mRNA hub. In its place they propose a neo-colonial scheme to make vaccines offshore to bypass Africa’s governments. 🧵 #PeoplesVaccine 1/ bmj.com/content/376/bm… Reminder, the hub is trying to produce an mRNA vaccine. Moderna & Pfizer refused to share their recipe. Maybe they believed the racist assumption that Africa couldn’t possibly produce mRNA? Seems they were wrong. 2/ aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/3/…

Just found out #Pfizer made $37bn on its vaccine last year. The most lucrative drug in history. Sales have doubled Pfizer’s revenue to $81 billion. If Pfizer were a country it would have the 66th largest GDP, ahead of Ethiopia & Luxembourg. #PeoplesVaccine🧵1/ Pfizer is expecting to bring in $54 billion in Covid-19 revenue next year from its vaccine and pill. The total amount they will make on their vaccine and treatment is truly mind-blowing. 2/ cnbc.com/2022/02/08/cov…

After all the UK government has done to back them, Big Pharma still isn’t happy. They say the UK should be put on a US trade sanctions ‘watch list’ because the #NHS has too much power to negotiate down medicine prices. #PeoplesVaccine 🧵 1/ Basically, ‘the NHS doesn’t pay Big Pharma enough.’ And worryingly, they think the UK government might agree with them – welcoming a NICE review, though still they think it should go further. This would represent a massive threat to the #NHS. 2/

If we ever want a normal Christmas again, we need to vaccinate the world. We can only do that by overriding Big Pharma’s stranglehold on vaccine recipes. Today we reveal some startling new stats 1/ #PeoplesVaccine #TRIPSWaiver The EU, UK & US have received more vaccine doses in the last 6 weeks than African countries have received all year. Just 8.6% of people in Africa have been fully vaccinated. This FT graph says it all in terms of just how unequal things are 2/

I welcome Johnson’s conversion on #ClimateChange at #Cop26, but the rhetoric is divorced from his actions. At a basic level, approving a new coal mine and oil licenses, and cutting tax on short haul flights is criminal. 1/7 gov.uk/government/spe… But the bigger problem is that Johnson thinks the market, big business & big finance will save us. That means while lecturing other countries on climate, he’s expanding a hyper-globalised, neo-colonial economy that is incompatible with tackling the #ClimateEmergency. #COP26 2/7

Great piece by @tomperrett97 showing how the corporate court system doesn't only mean governments get sued for enacting #ClimateAction - they may be forced to reverse these vital policies 1/6 #NoISDS bylinetimes.com/2021/09/13/the… A reminder, this system was developed as a 'magna carta for capitalism' to help undermine the decolonial movements of the 50s-70s, as explained here by @_BvdM 2/6 newstatesman.com/business/2021/…

New figures from @peoplesvaccine today show that Big Pharma monopolies are making vaccinating the world at least 5 times as expensive as it needs to be. “The most lethal profiteering in history” says @Anna_Marriott (1/5) #PeoplesVaccine Pfizer & Moderna accused of overcharging by around $41billion. These corporations received over $8billion in public support, and could be making their drug for as little as $1.20 a dose. Covax has been paying 5 times that. (2/5) oxfam.org/en/press-relea…

Our new report shows why we can't trust Big Pharma to deal with #Covid_19 fairly. It’s an industry driven by sky high profits. While public money has produced vaccines in record time, those medicines have now been privatised! (1/12) globaljustice.org.uk/resources/horr… Six of the biggest corporations in the #Covid_19 market generated $266 billion last year, with profits totalling $46bn. Johnson & Johnson is more wealthy than rich countries like New Zealand and Hungary. Pfizer’s revenues are bigger than oil-rich Kuwait or Malaysia. (2/12)

The #G20 statement on ‘a new debt system’ today is shockingly bad. Expectations were very low, but this is truly underwhelming nonetheless. #CancelTheDebt (1/5) jubileedebt.org.uk/press-release/… No compulsion for big banks or World Bank to write down debt. It’s all the responsibility of the debtor country, which in the current system has little power. Everything will be done to ensure as little debt is cancelled as possible. (2/5) g20.org/en/media/Docum…

Global South countries tell the WTO: we must suspend trade rules on patents if we’re to deal with #COVID19. Rich countries reply: ‘no, no, you’ll be totally fine, don’t worry’. (1/7) keionline.org/34235 Britain – which has tried to undermine schemes to allow #Covid19 medicines for all – tells poorer countries that they are being ‘extreme’ in wanting to suspend patent monopolies. (2/7)
gov.uk/government/new…

As Blackrock announce an 18% increase in 2020 revenue, and $7.8 *trillion* in assets, we release figures on how Blackrock and fellow banks are profiting from the #COVID19 debt crisis in Africa and beyond. #CancelTheDebt (1/9) globaljustice.org.uk/news/2020/oct/… Today the G20 will extend debt relief in 2021, but this isn’t proper cancellation AND doesn’t include big banks who are raking it in. Lower income countries will pay $13 billion to rich investors by end 2020 (2/9) in.reuters.com/article/imf-wo…

Today Jeremy Corbyn promised to bring medical research into common ownership at #LabourConference2019. This is a huge campaign victory, and a huge challenge to the power of Big Pharma. Here’s what it means: (1/9) #Lab19 At the moment, medicines are produced by a monopoly of giant corporations for super profits. They cost our #NHS over £18bn last year - an increase of 4.6% from the previous year - and means it can’t afford some new medicines. People are dying, the NHS is being undermined. (2/9)