This industry is “a company whose goal is profit” and does not cure the sick people because that would mean to “kill the business”, he added.

Velasquez participated on July 26 in a workshop addressed to journalists and in a public activity called: “Philip Morris’ Lawsuit against Uruguay: background and potential consequences of investment treaties”. The activities were called by Uruguayan organizations REDES-Friends of the Earth and FESUR. The Colombian economist and Argentinian lawyer and economist, Carlos Correa, spoke at the event.
Both are researchers at the South Center, an intergovernmental institution of developing countries based in Geneva (Switzerland). Real World Radio recorded their presentations at the journalists’ workshop.
On March, 2010, US tobacco company Philip Morris filed a lawsuit against Uruguay before the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), a World Bank dispute resolution body.

The company argued that the anti-tobacco policies implemented by the government of Oncologist Tabare Vazquez (2005-2009), that prevented the company from selling more than one presentation of the same brand, had violated their intellectual property rights. Philip Morris based their lawsuit on the Investment Protection Treaty signed between Uruguay and Switzerland, where the company’s headquarters are located.

Velasquez believes Philip Morris’ lawsuit is an “attempt against a health policy” and the World Health Organization (WHO), that promoted the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (signed in 2003), should express their support to Uruguay. But the “WHO probably won’t do that because that agency is at the service of private
interests and the industry of developed countries”, said the expert.

“The WHO is currently in the hands of four or five donors and the industrialized countries which are funding it”, he added.
Velasquez worked for many years at the WHO, since 1989. Ten years later he was appointed coordinator of the Action Program on Essential Drugs. Before that, he had worked as adviser for Health Ministries in Mozambique and Mali, in the fields of public health, health economy and drugs. The risks of patents on drugs is one of the issues that have concerned the Colombian expert the most.

The WHO “is being privatized”, regretted the economist. “Over 80 per cent of its budget comes from private contributions, among them the Bill Gates Foundation. In other words, Bill Gates is buying the WHO”, he said. Private donors establish the areas, technical programs, activities, etc, in which their funds should be used, said Velasquez. “In fact, they are setting the WHO’s priorities”, he warned.

The economist highlighted that the drugs on the market today are not meant to cure diseases, but to treat them. He added that the pharmaceutical industry stopped researching into antibiotics "because they are not profitable anymore, since most of them are public".
Velasquez set the example of people with cardiovascular diseases, diabetes or AIDS, who need to take drugs for life. “The industry is trying to maintain the person with a certain quality of life, but not to break their dependence from drugs completely”, he concluded.

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