December 9, 2011
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement will threaten the supply of affordable generic medicines in developing countries, an international medical humanitarian group has recently warned.
In its report titled, “How the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Threatens Access to Medicines,” Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) revealed that the U.S. government, pushed by domestic pharmaceutical companies, plans to call for stronger protection of intellectual property rights in multinational TPP negotiations.
Based on analyses of a leaked draft of the U.S. position on the TPP, trade agreements the U.S. concluded, and publications of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), the MSF points out that the U.S. government is expected to make the following demands in negotiations regarding the intellectual property chapter of the TPP: to make it easier to patent new forms of old medicines that offer no added therapeutic efficacy; to make it harder to file opposition to the granting of a patent; to allow customs officials to seize shipments of drugs on mere suspicion of IP infringement; to restrict access to essential clinical trial data to grant monopoly status; and to extend patent terms.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), representing U.S. medicine and biotechnology companies, called in its TPP-related publication for the need to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in order to recoup research and development investments and, in particular, for measures to prevent generic manufacturers from obtaining clinical trial data.
The Associated Press reported that PhRMA spent $ 4.54 million in the first quarter and $ 4.7 million in the second quarter of 2011 to lobby government agencies to provide stronger protection of intellectual property rights in foreign countries.
The MSF in its report gave an example of the importance of allowing generic drugs to enter the market, stating, “the first generation of HIV drugs have come down in price by 99 percent over the last decade, from U.S. $ 10,000 per person per year in 2000 to roughly $ 60 today”.
In its report titled, “How the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Threatens Access to Medicines,” Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) revealed that the U.S. government, pushed by domestic pharmaceutical companies, plans to call for stronger protection of intellectual property rights in multinational TPP negotiations.
Based on analyses of a leaked draft of the U.S. position on the TPP, trade agreements the U.S. concluded, and publications of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), the MSF points out that the U.S. government is expected to make the following demands in negotiations regarding the intellectual property chapter of the TPP: to make it easier to patent new forms of old medicines that offer no added therapeutic efficacy; to make it harder to file opposition to the granting of a patent; to allow customs officials to seize shipments of drugs on mere suspicion of IP infringement; to restrict access to essential clinical trial data to grant monopoly status; and to extend patent terms.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), representing U.S. medicine and biotechnology companies, called in its TPP-related publication for the need to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in order to recoup research and development investments and, in particular, for measures to prevent generic manufacturers from obtaining clinical trial data.
The Associated Press reported that PhRMA spent $ 4.54 million in the first quarter and $ 4.7 million in the second quarter of 2011 to lobby government agencies to provide stronger protection of intellectual property rights in foreign countries.
The MSF in its report gave an example of the importance of allowing generic drugs to enter the market, stating, “the first generation of HIV drugs have come down in price by 99 percent over the last decade, from U.S. $ 10,000 per person per year in 2000 to roughly $ 60 today”.
