Trade Pacific Partnership Will Increase Medicine Price, Says Study

A research based on a leaked draft says that Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) will increase the price of medicines.

Researchers from the Universities of New South Wales, La Trobe and Sydney conducted the research based on leaked drafts of the TPP and found that TPP will increase the medicine price.

The leaked negotiating draft shows the US is seeking to lengthen the period through different mechanisms, expand and extend patent keep the drug prices high for longer periods and delay the availability of generic medicines.

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The Trade Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a proposed trade agreement between 12 Pacific Rim countries. The TPP deal has been negotiated in secret since 2012.

The research found that increasing the price of medicines could affect the health of poor Australians who may choose to go without treatment to save money. Researchers warned that this could “lead to downstream costs such as increased hospitalizations”.

The trade agreement between Australia and US shows Australia provides 5 years of protection but the US is seeking extra three years of protection for new uses of existing drugs and twelve years for biologic drug and vaccines.

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Australia's Trade Minister Andrew Robb said, “The government will not support outcomes that would increase the prices of medicines for Australians or adversely affect our health system” and dismissed the findings as “dubious.”

The deal will be a secret until the trade negotiators meet next week in Hawaii. TPP holds 40 percent of the world’s economy: the industrialized nations of Australia, Canada, Singapore, Brunei, New Zealand, Chile, Mexico, the US and Japan alongside the less developed nations of Malaysia, Peru, and Vietnam.

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Source-Medindia

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