Expressing deep dismay at conclusion of secretly negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement that threatens future access to affordable generic medicines and sustainable development goals, some of the Asia-Pacific AIDS groups have called upon the participating countries and Parliaments to reject ratification of TPP agreement.
The TPPA text that was hurriedly wrapped up over the weekend in Atlanta still remains secret as details trickle out through the media of vastly expanded monopolies on medicines through extended patent and exclusivity provisions that will endanger the lives and health of hundreds of thousands of patients in these countries.
The Asia Pacific Network of People living with HIV/AIDS (APN+), Positive Malaysian Treatment Access & Advocacy Group (MTAAG+) and the Vietnam Network of People living with HIV (VNP+) have expressed deep dismay at news of the conclusion of the TPP led by the United States with 11 countries including seven in the Asia-Pacific region i.e. Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Brunei.
"Today, in the Asia-Pacific region, 2nd and 3rd line AIDS medicines are exorbitantly priced. US multinational pharmaceutical company Gilead is playing games with the lives of people living with hepatitis C by creating a complex pathway of licenses, price negotiations and collection of personal data before patients can access sofosbuvir. Cancer treatment prices have skyrocketed. We are directly seeing these impacts of the US-promoted patent rules in the WTO’s TRIPS Agreement that require 20-year monopolies on medicines in Malaysia. Now, 20 years after TRIPS, the next generation of international intellectual property obligations pushed by the US through the TPP would keep even more medicines unaffordable for longer periods of time,” said Edward Low of MTAAG+.
The final TPP text is likely to contain intellectual property provisions pushed by the US on behalf of the multinational pharmaceutical industry that are far in excess of what developing countries like Vietnam and Malaysia have agreed to in the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
Known as TRIPS-plus, these measures are contrary to the WTO’s Doha Declaration which re-affirmed the right of countries to use TRIPS flexibilities stating that TRIPS “can and should be interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of WTO member’s right to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all.”
But the TPP is likely to do away with many of these TRIPS flexibilities by requiring longer patent terms, data and marketing exclusivity, patents on new forms and new uses of known medicines, harsh patent enforcement provisions and investment provisions that will allow MNCs to sue governments for pro-health policies.
"In recent days the reporting around the TPP has focussed only on an exclusivity period for biological medicines with a reported push back on the 12-year period proposed by the US being presented as a victory for developed countries in the TPP like Australia," noted Shiba Phurailatpam of APN+. "But even a mandatory 5-year period of exclusivity along with the several other restrictive conditions imposed by the US, will have a massive adverse impact in countries like Malaysia and Vietnam as will the other damaging provisions in the intellectual property chapter. The conclusion of this trade deal makes a mockery of the Sustainable Development Goals and the new WHO HIV treatment guidelines that call for immediate initiation of treatment," he added.