Colombia is allowing local production of a generic form of a cancer drug that is ultraexpensive because of a government-granted monopoly handed to a giant, multinational pharmaceutical corporation. The U.S. government is stepping in on the corporation's side with a modern form of "gunboat diplomacy" — even though the giant corporation isn't even "American."

In November 2014, a group of public health advocacy organizations called on the Colombian government to declare that the public interest warrants that the country can produce a generic version of the ultraexpensive cancer drug Gleevec, produced by the "Swiss" giant Novartis. According to a March, 2015 report in Intellectual Property Watch, "Colombia Asked To Declare Excessive Price For Cancer Drug Contrary To Public Interest, Grounds For Compulsory License":

The evidence supporting a declaration of public interest is self-evident: imatinib [the generic name for Gleevec] is unquestionably effective as a leukemia drug, and was placed on the WHO's Essential Medicines List in 2015.