China Goes Generic! — Dean Baker

Must-read. It's short.

Not only does this have a potentially huge impact on Big Pharma, but it is also China poking the US in the eye in retaliation for it regards as humiliation. So it is also "saving face."

Perhaps the largest and longest lasting impact of the trade war that is already occurring is the change in attitude of Chinese consumers about American products. The Chinese are very nationalistic and patriotic. They are also ethnically proud and justifiably so based on being able to boast of the longest functioning culture on earth that is still going strong.

Insulting the China, which means the Chinese people, is a bad idea in a lot of ways, not the least owning to economic reasons. China has not only the largest market but also the fastest growing middle class of large developed countries. And there is a long way to go, even though China has the largest economy based on PPP. Loosing its initial foothold that market would/will be difficult for the US to deal with. This is, of course, especially true if Chimerica decouples, as the China hawks wish.

Worst of all, President Trump recently labeled President Xi an "enemy." The Chinese will understand "Xi" here as identical with "China," and that the US regards China as an enemy. This was a really, really dumb move that is impossible to reverse without kowtowing, which, of course, the American president would never do. It goes far beyond a strategic blunder. It changes the entire game.

At this point, it's "locked and loaded," and it is turning into more than a war of words. It didn't need to go this way.

Beat the Press
China Goes Generic!
Dean Baker | Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C

Daniel Oberhaus — Meet the Anarchists Making Their Own Medicine

“So yeah, we are encouraging people to break the law,” Laufer added. “If you're going to die and you're being denied the medicine that can save you, would you rather break the law and live, or be a good upstanding citizen and a corpse?”

Power to the people!

Motherboard
Meet the Anarchists Making Their Own Medicine

Daniel Oberhaus
ht Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism

Dean Baker — We [the People] Win Trade War! China Goes Generic Big Time

Donald Trump has proved the skeptics wrong, it seems that the American people stand to be big winners as a result of his trade war. The Chinese government announced a major initiative to promote the manufacture and use of generic drugs....

This can matter hugely for people in the United States since if China joins India as a mass producer of high quality generic drugs it will become increasingly difficult for the U.S. drug companies to maintain an island of protected prices in the United States....

Beat the Press

We [the People] Win Trade War! China Goes Generic Big Time

Dean Baker | Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C

David F. Ruccio — “Profits above morals and humanity”

Value determined by the price the market will bear rather than by cost. 

The classical definition of economic rent is market price in excess of cost of production (ht Michael Hudson).

Occasional Links & Commentary
“Profits above morals and humanity”
David F. Ruccio | Professor of Economics, University of Notre Dame

Free Markets Mean Zero Economic Profit – or a 99% Profit Markup

Bill Black explains economic rent, rent-seeking behavior, and rent extraction, which neoclassical economics assumes away.


New Economic Perspectives
Free Markets Mean Zero Economic Profit – or a 99% Profit Markup
William K. Black | Associate Professor of Economics and Law, UMKC

Michael Grunwald — Leaked: What’s in Obama’s trade deal

A recent draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade deal would give U.S. pharmaceutical firms unprecedented protections against competition from cheaper generic drugs, possibly transcending the patent protections in U.S. law.

POLITICO has obtained a draft copy of TPP’s intellectual property chapter as it stood on May 11, at the start of the latest negotiating round in Guam. While U.S. trade officials would not confirm the authenticity of the document, they downplayed its importance, emphasizing that the terms of the deal are likely to change significantly as the talks enter their final stages. Those terms are still secret, but the public will get to see them once the twelve TPP nations reach a final agreement and President Obama seeks congressional approval.
Still, the draft chapter will provide ammunition for critics who have warned that TPP’s protections for pharmaceutical companies could dump trillions of dollars of additional health care costs on patients, businesses and governments around the Pacific Rim. The highly technical 90-page document, cluttered with objections from other TPP nations, shows that U.S. negotiators have fought aggressively and, at least until Guam, successfully on behalf of Big Pharma....

Some of the most contentious provisions involve “patent linkage,” which would prevent regulators in TPP nations from approving generic drugs whenever there are any unresolved patent issues. The TPP draft would make this linkage mandatory, which could help drug companies fend off generics just by claiming an infringement.

Like I've been saying, neoliberalism = thug rule. It has nothing to do with liberalizing markets but rather power. If there were still any doubt about the Obama Administration being corrupt, this puts it to rest.

The is also the antithesis of economic liberalism based on competitive markets.

In an April 15 letter to Froman, Heather Bresch, the CEO of the generic drug company Mylan, warned that mandatory patent linkage would be “a recipe for indefinite evergreening of pharmaceutical monopolies,”....

The critics say that extending linkage to biologics—which can have hundreds of patents—would help insulate them from competition forever.....

Competitive markets are supposed to favor consumers by establishing a fair price through price discovery.

...Malpani of Doctors Without Borders said U.S. negotiators have basically functioned as drug lobbyists. The TPP countries have 40 percent of global economic output, and the deal is widely seen as establishing new benchmarks for some of the most complex areas of global business. Malpani fears it could set a precedent that crushes the generic drug industry under a mountain of regulation and litigation.

“We consider this the worst-ever agreement in terms of access to medicine,” he said. “It would create higher drug prices around the world—and in the U.S., too.

"U.S. negotiators have basically functioned as ... lobbyists." That's their job. They are just doing what they are tasked to do by the administration. Look at who Obama appointed Commerce Secretary. Penny Pritzker was a major backer of Barack Obama in his political career.

In 1989, Ms. Pritzker's late uncle, Jay Pritzker, purchased a 50% stake in Hinsdale, Illinois-based Superior Bank of Chicago from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which had taken over the bank when it failed.[13] Penny Pritzker was Superior's chairperson from 1991–1994. In 1993, the bank "embarked on a business strategy of significant growth into subprime home mortgages," according to a report by the United States Treasury Department.[13] In 2000, it became clear the bank was faltering. In the months leading up to 2001, the Pritzkers tried to work out a recapitalization plan.[13] In July 2001, FDIC seized the bank after the recapitalization could not be resolved.[14][15][16] Subsequently, the Pritzker family reached an agreement with regulators to pay $460 million.[13][17][18][19] — Wikipedia

Then there is US Trade Representative Michael Froman, a Rubin protege.

On May 2, 2013, Froman was nominated to serve as U.S. Trade Representative. Financial documents provided to the Senate Finance Committee showed he had nearly $500,000 in an offshore fund at Ugland House on the Cayman Islands, which Obama had once described as “the biggest tax scam in the world.” [12] In 2013 congressional testimony, Rep. Kevin Brady, Republican from Texas, criticized the EU low carbon fuel standard, where oil from tar-sands is classified by itself due to its higher carbon polluting impact compared to regular oil as a "discriminatory, environmentally unjustified" trade barrier, to which Froman responded, "I share your concerns," followed by a description of his work to "press the Commission to take the views of . . . U.S. refiners under consideration." Froman's role as in the drafting of classified trade deals (made public by WikiLeaks) is under scrutiny by lawyers and politicians alike.[13] The U.S. Senate confirmed Froman in a 93-4 vote on June 19, 2013.[14] One of the four dissenting senators was Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren, who faulted Froman for "refusing to commit to [...] standards of transparency in trade talks set by the George W. Bush administration".[13] — Wikipedia

Politico
Leaked: What’s in Obama’s trade deal
Michael Grunwald

Don Quijones — Will US-imposed IP Empire in India Put Global Access to Medicines at Risk?

Prof Brook K Baker, Professor of Law at Northeastern University, cautions that the Modi government’s accelerating flirtation with the US and its investors is dangerous to hundreds of millions of people worldwide whose lives depend on Indian generics.

The new maharajas — same as the old maharajas. Rent-seekers to the core who love to live  high off rent extraction love use schemes to create artificial scarcity, because competition.

Raging Bull-shit
Will US-imposed IP Empire in India Put Global Access to Medicines at Risk?
Don Quijones