TPP Agreement: A bad deal for access to medicines
Since yesterday, ministers from 12 countries gather in Singapore for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement negotiation rounds. We, in Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), urge countries to prioritise efforts to fix the serious threats to access to medicines in the draft agreement.
The call comes in the wake of US President Barack Obama’s tour of Asian countries last month, where he acknowledged in Malaysia “we’ve got to find a way to make sure that [medicines are] available to folks who simply can’t afford it as part of our common humanity.” But US trade negotiators have in fact taken a hard line in the opposite direction, abandoning previous commitments by the US government that allow developing countries to retain safeguards in their national laws to respond to public health needs, including affordable medicines.
Set as the golden standard of 21st trade agreements, TPP negotiations are being conducted in secret, but leaked drafts of the U.S. negotiating positions show that the U.S. is demanding aggressive intellectual property (IP) provisions that would roll back public health safeguards enshrined in international trade law in favor of offering enhanced patent and data protections to pharmaceutical companies, making it harder to gain access to affordable generic drugs and hindering needed innovation.
Problematic intellectual property rules that would block or delay access to affordable generic versions of medicines – including “data exclusivity” for biologic medicines and weaker patentability criteria – remain in the draft negotiating text. By insisting on these provisions, US trade negotiators are abandoning the hard-fought ‘May 2007 agreement’, a deal with less prosperous countries which permanently exempted them from implementing harsh intellectual property provisions and was supposed to hold true for all future trade agreements.
Critics are particularly concerned about the secrecy around the agreement. It is a cause for concern for many countries in the region as, in some circumstances – such as when a company’s expected profit is perceived to be under threat by national regulation – the rights of multinational corporations, including pharmaceutical companies, would take precedence over the national sovereignty of signatory countries. The agreement in its current form would force countries to yield sovereignty over key domestic laws and regulations, which protect their and their citizens’ rights, in favour of foreign multinationals.
If the US proposal is accepted, the poorest countries in the negotiations, Vietnam for example, would be forced to limit access to affordable medicines long before their public health needs are under control. The fact remains that no country, rich or poor, should accept limitations on its sovereign ability to ensure medicine is accessible and affordable for all those who need it.
In simple words, the TPP as it stands is a bad deal for access to medicines. At a time when countries are grappling with skyrocketing healthcare costs, it’s outrageous that the provisions in the TPP would increase the cost of medicines even further, leaving millions across Asia and in other parts of the world without affordable access.
The US-proposed time-limited exemptions for a few of the poorest countries – where some provisions wouldn’t be implemented until a certain date or conditions are met – are a feeble attempt to distract from the fact that the vast majority of TPP countries will be forced to implement the provisions immediately. This includes increasingly cash-strapped middle-income countries where 70% of the world’s poor live and who can ill-afford to lock in high prices for medicines.
With no clear end to the negotiations in sight, countries must take a stand and remove provisions that will harm access to medicines. The damaging clauses in question could literally mean the difference of life and death for people who can’t afford high-priced medicines.
Rémi Carrier is the Executive Director of MSF Hong Kong.
