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Govts told to nix TPP deals, grant access to medicines
As Asia-Pacific leaders prepare to meet in Bali for the APEC Summit, where the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement will be high on the agenda, an international humanitarian organization has urged the governments not to indulge in political trade-offs during negotiations, which could restrict peopleâs access to affordable medicines
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s Asia-Pacific leaders prepare to meet in Bali for the APEC Summit, where the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement will be high on the agenda, an international humanitarian organization has urged the governments not to indulge in political trade-offs during negotiations, which could restrict people's access to affordable medicines.
'Millions of lives have been saved because of the availability of affordable generic medicines, but we could see this significant progress unravel as leaders trade away health in the TPP negotiations,' said Dr. Manica Balasegaram, executive director of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
'We can't let the lives of millions of people get entangled in the political hard bargaining as the US government pushes for the negotiations on this trade deal to wrap up,' Balasegaram said in a statement on Thursday.
The US proposals in the TPP negotiations involve the most egregious intellectual property provisions ever seen in a proposed trade deal with both developed and developing countries, according to the statement.
They cover multiple avenues for multinational pharmaceutical companies to lengthen their monopolies by extending patents on medicines through a common pharmaceutical industry practice known as 'evergreening'. This keeps the prices of medicines high for longer by blocking competition from generics.
The negotiations have entered a critical stage, with governments being urged to close the deal before the end of the year. After months of opposition to its initial proposal, the US government may now be proposing differential treatment on the intellectual property chapter, whereby several of the poorest countries in the negotiations would gain a temporary and limited exemption from some of the provisions.
However, this would still leave these countries with intellectual property provisions that far exceed what is required under international trade rules, which themselves are already choking off the supply of affordable medicines in developing countries. Furthermore, millions of poor people in other TPP countries would be left with unaffordable prices for the medicines they need.
'Nobody should be fooled by this latest US proposal, which purports to lessen the negative impact this trade deal will have on access to medicines in the poorest countries in the negotiations,' said Judit Rius, manager of MSF's Access Campaign in the US.
'This is still a terrible deal that will continue to delay the entry of affordable generic medicines that MSF and millions of people rely on.'
In addition, pharmaceutical companies are lobbying for the US government to demand 12 years of so-called 'data exclusivity' on biologic drugs in the TPP negotiations, which would further delay the entry of more affordable versions of these medicines.
'If the US was serious about protecting innovation and access to medicines in this agreement, it would not propose stricter levels of intellectual property protection,' Rius said.
