Zahara Heckscher, Cancer Patient
Media Statement on TPP and Access to Cancer Medicines
Contact: 202-489-8908
ZaharaHeckscher@gmail.com
September 30, 2015
I am Zahara Heckscher, a mother, wife, writer, and educator.
Seven years ago this week I received the chilling news that I had
invasive breast cancer. The diagnosis was especially devastating
because my son was only 3 years old. But today, even though my
cancer is considered advanced, and my current treatment includes
chemotherapy, I think of myself as a Cancer Thriver. My life is full
and rich. I was able to be there for my son's 10th birthday party. I
stay busy and productive with work, biking, stand up paddling, as
well as PTA meetings and taking my boy to baseball practice and
soccer games.
I am alive and thriving today in large part because I have had
access to the latest medicines for breast cancer. My treatment has
included new biological medicines, or biologics: the monoclonal
antibodies trastuzumab (Hercepin) and pertuzumab (Perjeta) and
denosumab (Xgeva). These and similar medicines have extended
and even saved the lives of thousands of women with breast
cancer. The additional biologics in the pipeline give so much hope
to me and other people living with cancer.
Sadly, I know all too well what cancer can mean without these
breakthrough treatments. Let’s go back to September 8, 1976. It's
the day before I start junior high. It's four days before I turn 12.
That was the day my mother died of breast cancer, less than one
year after her diagnosis. That is what cancer means without access
to new treatment. I am a writer, but I am at a loss to find the
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words to tell you how awful it was for me, my brother and my
sister, as well as my father, to go on without her.
For my mother to die of breast cancer was a tragedy for our
family.
For thousands of women to die unnecessary of breast cancer
because of the TPP is a horrible, cruel, premeditated, and
avoidable catastrophe.
The majority of women with breast cancer are mothers. So breast
cancer is not only an illness that strikes down women in their
prime; it also creates devastating effects on the children and
partners of its victims, lifelong damage to families -- because you
can never fully recover if you lose your mother when you are a
child.
And that is why I am here. The provisions under consideration by
the TPP would allow drug monopolies on biologics for 8 years.
Some of these medicines cost up to tens of thousands, even
hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. When you have breast
cancer today, you can’t wait 8 years or 7 years or 6 years or 5 years
for a treatment to become available or affordable. When you have
cancer, even a one year delay in affordable medicine can be a
death sentence. That is why we call this proposed provision of the
TPP a death sentence clause. If it passes, thousands of women like
me will die waiting. It also means that here in the US, we’ll be
locked in to long waiting times for affordable new medicines. Any
efforts to reduce wait times could be struck down by
undemocratic trade tribunals. This is unacceptable to me, to other
people with cancer, and to our friends and families.
You might ask, if I oppose extended monopolies, am I antiresearch? Of course not. I am currently in a clinical trial and I am
happy that I can contribute my time and my cancer cells to
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scientific advancement. I have a degree in biology and even
worked as an intern in a research lab that made monoclonal antibodies. Medical research is keeping me alive.
I am pro-research and pro-access. Don't be confused by
arguments that conflate the death sentence clause with the ability
to advance medical research. Big pharma is doing fine without
this extra 8 year monopoly. Extra revenue from monopolies may
bloat already high profits, may puff up advertising budgets, but
this extended monopoly period is not required for pharmaceutical
companies, or the National Institutes of Health, or nonprofits, or
universities to continue investing in cutting edge medical
research.
Now let's go to the future. It's 2018. A 7 year old girl’s mother sits
her down to explain, "mama has an illness called breast cancer". If
today, we can prevent the death sentence clause, there will be a
better chance to get her mother affordable biologics on the market
sooner -- and a better chance that this girl will have her mother
there to nurture her as she grows up - the same chance I hope to
have to continue being there for my son.
This is why we must act today.
I am here to remind Ambassador Froman and the USTR team that
the policies they promote are supposed to represent the interests
of the people of the US, not just the short term greed of the giant
pharmaceutical companies.
And I also call on the trade ministers for other countries to
continue to stand strong against the death sentence clause.
I am honored to bring with me the names of hundreds of people
with me, including cancer survivors, who join me in our plea to
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the TPP negotiators. We speak with one voice: Drop the TPP
death sentence clause.
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