Behind America’s decades-long fight to dismantle the PBS

For decades, America’s pharmaceutical giants have been plotting to torpedo Australia’s Pharmaceuticals Benefits Scheme (PBS). Twenty years ago, they scored a huge victory when they secured major concessions from the Howard government, as America and Australia negotiated the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement. Big pharma was at it again during the Obama years when Australia was on the cusp of signing up to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). A multilateral trade deal, the TPP was designed to build a regional bloc against China. Buried in the detail, however, were clauses that quietly entrenched the power of major American corporations. A naive Donald…