The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
NW Washington, DC 20500
Fax: (202) 456-7044

Dear Vice President Gore,

I am pleased to hear that you intend to address the issue of unjust pricing of pharmaceutical drugs. I would be interested in your views on the following issues.

1. Will you support an end to the bans of parallel imports of pharmaceuticals from Canada, Europe and Japan, subject to regulation to ensure product safety, so that US citizens can buy drugs at the lower prices now available to consumers in foreign countries? Do you think the current legislation on reimportation of pharmaceutical drugs goes far enough in protecting US consumers from global price discrimination? Do you agree with Representative Sanders, Senator Dorgan, myself, and others that there should be fewer restrictions on parallel imports, and greater access by US consumers to foreign markets?

2. Will you end the practice of routinely allowing giant pharmaceutical companies to obtain exclusive rights to pharmaceutical drugs developed with the help of U.S. government funding, and then to sell these drugs at outrageous prices?

3. Will you agree to allow the World Health Organization and UNAIDS to use US government rights in pharmaceutical patents in poor countries? For example, will you allow UNAIDS and the WHO to use the US government patent rights on d4T, ddI, ddC, Abacavir, Ritonavir, and many other drugs, medical devices and diagnostic techniques that the government invented or helped to invent, and retains patent rights in, to improve health care in poor countries? As you know, Secretary Shalala has refused to do this. I believe it is morally repugnant to withhold these rights, and thereby deprive poor and sick people of life-saving medicines.

4. Will you support legislation to authorize the US government to issue compulsory licenses to patents on medicines and gene technologies, in the event that the patent owners charge unreasonable prices for access to new medical inventions? Compulsory licenses would reduce prices by allowing competitors to manufacture and sell generic products, while paying royalties to the patent holder.

5. Will you support patent exceptions or compulsory licensing to prevent patent-holders from using patents to block medical research, or to block the commercial use of medical technologies?

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader