E-DRUG: MSF: TPP negotiators must fix most damaging trade agreement ever for global health
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MSF PR issued today (24 July), as negotiations get underway in Hawaii:
http://www.msfaccess.org/about-us/media-room/press-releases/tpp-negotiators-must-fix-most-damaging-trade-agreement-ever
TPP Negotiators Must Fix the Most Damaging Trade Agreement Ever for Global
Health
As U.S. aims to close deal, countries should reject damaging provisions
that will block access to affordable medicines
Maui/New York, July 24, 2015 Trade negotiators must remove damaging access
to medicines provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal
or risk locking in high drug prices and endangering the health of millions
of people for decades to come, said the medical humanitarian organization
Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) as negotiations
resumed in Maui, Hawaii, today. MSF's call comes as reports indicate that
this could be the last negotiation before the agreement is concluded.
If approved in its current form, the TPP, which is being negotiated
between the U.S. and 11 other Pacific Rim countries, will have a
devastating impact on global health. It would strengthen, lengthen and
create new patent and regulatory monopolies for pharmaceutical products
that will raise the price of medicines and reduce the availability of
price-lowering generic competition.
'We have raised our voice as loudly as we can, repeatedly warning that
this is a terrible deal for access to affordable medicines,' said Manica
Balasegaram, Executive Director of MSF's Access Campaign, 'Ministries of
Health, humanitarian groups such as MSF and global health programs funded
by the U.S. government all rely on affordable medicines to provide medical
care. Despite repeated warnings from MSF, other concerned experts and
groups, and even other negotiating countries, U.S. negotiators have pushed
for provisions that benefit pharmaceutical companies at the expense of
more than 800 million people who need access to affordable generic
medicines in current TPP countries.'
Some of the most concerning provisions in the TPP center on so-called
'patent evergreening,' which would force TPP governments to grant
pharmaceutical companies additional patents for changes to existing
medicines, even when those changes provide no therapeutic benefit to
patients.
U.S. negotiators have also aggressively pushed for 12 years of 'data
exclusivity' for biologic medicines, which include vaccines and drugs to
treat conditions such as cancer and multiple sclerosis. Data exclusivity
blocks government regulatory authorities from allowing price-lowering
generic competitors to enter the market with previously generated clinical
data.
If pharmaceutical companies get their way, brand-name drugs and vaccines
would not face direct competition for excessively long periods of time
while patients, medical providers like MSF, and people in TPP countries
endure unnecessarily high prices.
'The U.S. is demanding that countries implement a devastating set of new
trade rules that will essentially block people from benefitting from the
latest advances in medicines for years simply because this is in the
interest of multinational pharmaceutical companies,' said Judit Rius
Sanjuan, U.S. Manager and Policy Advisor for MSF's Access Campaign.
'Extended monopolies, such as those being pushed by the U.S. in the TPP,
are irresponsible and harmful to public health.'
The provisions demanded by U.S. negotiators break past U.S. government
commitments to global health, including a 2007 agreement in which the U.S
agreed to include key public health safeguards in future free trade deals
with developing countries.
'The U.S. has abandoned its previous commitments to protect health in its
trade policy,' said Rius. 'The TPP is a precedent-setting blueprint for
future trade deals that will deny countries their right to balance
business interests with the public health needs of people ' a right that
is ingrained in international trade rules. This week might be the last
chance negotiators have to mitigate some of the potential devastation of
the TPP. We ask government negotiators to protect access to medicines and
fix the most damaging provisions in the TPP.'
Michelle French
Sr. Communications Manager, MSF Access Campaign
Doctors Without Borders\Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
Office: +1.212.763.5735 | Mobile: +1.646.552.4600
michelle.french@newyork.msf.org | Skype: michellejfrench
www.msfaccess.org | twitter.com/MSF_access | www.facebook.com/MSFaccess