New TPP Maneuvering on Biologics, But 5+3 Still = 8

maybardukMinisterial talks for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) collapsed in Maui last month when trade ministers sparred over issues including monopolies for biotech drugs, which include many cancer treatments. Talks resumed this weekend in Atlanta, where negotiators are reportedly exploring a tweaked approach to the impasse over biologics. But the approach, which may consider introducing a period of post-marketing surveillance in a system analogous to Japanese law, is an illusion, not an improvement. It is a repackaging of the same harmful idea already rejected by many countries.

In other words, 5 + 3 still makes 8 years exclusivity.

Analysis: http://www.citizen.org/documents/new-tpp-maneuvering-on-biotetch-drugs-september-2015.pdf

Author

  • Peter Maybarduk

    Peter Maybarduk is Public Citizen's Global Access to Medicines Program Director. Maybarduk helps governments and civil society groups around the world use flexibilities in patent and trade rules to promote access to medicines for all. For example, Maybarduk's recent work with partners yielded major HIV/AIDS drug price reductions in Colombia and new state access to medicines policies enacted by the President of Ecuador. His work also focuses on protecting competition and access under intellectual property enforcement policies, and on appropriate policy responses to criminally adulterated or falsified medicines.

    Maybarduk has co-founded and coordinated several volunteer-run advocacy and assistance groups, including International Professional Partnerships for Sierra Leone (IPPSL), dedicated to supporting public sector development in one of the world's least developed countries. He studied law at the University of California at Berkeley and anthropology at the College of William and Mary. Maybarduk is a composer and performer of music, currently recording his third album with producer J. Robbins.

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