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Posts are by members of the Peoples Health Movement PEH Network. Anyone may comment but you will need to register before your first comment will be published.

This blogsite is a resource of the People’s Health Movement. Its purpose is to provide a platform for discussion of the applications of political economy to the struggle for health. (The People’s Charter for Health provides an overview of PHM’s analyses and objectives: the ‘struggle for health’).

  • Progress on the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation

    In preparation for the August 2025 sessions of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) on the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation (UNFCITC) to be held in August 2025, the Co-Leads of each of the three Workstreams have released Draft Issues Notes for public comments. The Issues Notes are meant to provide direction on…

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  • The dismantling of American health care

    Important analysis of the impacts of Trump on healthcare in the USA by leading analysts: Adam Gaffney, David U. Himmelstein, and Steffie Woolhandler published in the New York Review July 8 2025 (here). Their detailed review of the Trump devastation ends with the following: “We find ourselves living under a federal government unconcerned with the…

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  • No drug price pledges by Pfizer, others in talks with US government, Pfizer CEO says

    By Michael Erman (Reuters) on 10 June 2025.  Pfizer and other drug companies have met with the Trump administration to discuss lowering U.S. drug prices but no commitments have been made, Chief Executive Albert Bourla said on Monday. President Donald Trump issued an executive order last month directing drugmakers to lower the prices of their medicines to align…

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  • China, unequal exchange, and the present world-historic juncture

    Professor Jason Hickel’s speech to the Fudan University forum (18 April 2025) on “Socialist Perspectives on Global Governance in a Multipolar World.” Published by Progressive International. “My objective this morning is to analyse the world economy from the perspective of unequal exchange. I will describe how this works, how it poses an obstacle to development,…

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  • Pharmaceutical patents and data exclusivity in an age of AI-driven drug discovery and development

    Artificial intelligence (AI) stands to drastically reduce both the risks and costs normally associated with the development of new medical products. This could fundamentally reshape pharmaceutical innovation, challenging both the justification for high medicines prices to recoup investment in research and development (R&D) and the market exclusivity systems – including patents and data exclusivity –…

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  • Who’s Afraid of Trump’s Tariffs?

    C. P. Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh (posted on IDEAS blog, 1 April 2025) observe that the weaponization of tariffs by US President Donald Trump has generated fear and loathing across the world. These threats are not only purely performative; nor are they just transactional in nature. The logic of these tariff threats in most cases…

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  • Has the Indian Patents Act succeeded in ensuring access to affordable medicine?

    Prof Biswajit Dhar (in The Leaflet, 16 April 2025) argues that the major flexibilities in the Indian Patent Act – Section 3(d) and the compulsory licensing system – to make medicines affordable, have been under-implemented. As prices of medicines have skyrocketed, secondary patenting has proliferated while compulsory licensing has been invoked only once. In full…

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  • Oligarchy and the subversion of democracy – warnings from South Africa

    Wim Naudé (in Review of African Political Economy, 11 April 2025) warns that South Africa’s oligarchy offers a case study in how elite control can subvert democracy and entrench inequality. Since the end of Apartheid, the country has embraced neoliberal economic policies that favour mining, finance, and agri-business elites, pointing to a strong collusion between…

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  • Operation ‘save capitalism’ in America

    By C.P. Chandrasekhar in Frontline 7 March 2025 Make no mistake: Trump and his team do not wish to destroy the US state; they aim to capture it and make it even more an instrument to serve the rich. If the first month of Donald Trump’s second term as US President is any indication, global…

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  • Resources on Pandemic Treaty

    The 13th session of the INB closed on 21 Feb 2024. See report of INB13 here. See also, courtesy of Health Policy Watch, the status of the draft treaty at the beginning of INB13, here. Useful sites for following the development of the draft treaty: INB Index page; HPW Pandemic Treaty Collection; Medicines, Law and…

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