Doctors Without Borders raises the alarm about drug prices under the TPP provisions

[cali]

on intellectual property rights:

For the first time in more than two years, text from the intellectual property chapter of the secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement negotiations has been leaked. Since 2010, the negotiations have been shrouded in secrecy, with none of the current 12 negotiating Pacific rim countries releasing text or information on a trade agreement that will ultimately impact the lives of at least half a billion people.

The TPP currently includes some of the harshest provisions against access to medicines ever included in a trade agreement with developing countries, gutting public health safeguards and leaving them unable to take the steps needed to protect the lives and health of their people above the profit of multinational pharmaceutical companies. For more information, please read MSF’s issue brief and recent statements here: http://www.msfaccess.org/tpp/
- See more at: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article.cfm?id=7145&cat=field-news#sthash.c2ZSgbVl.dpuf

"The leak of the secret text confirms that the US government continues to steamroll its trading partners in the face of steadfast opposition over terms that will severely restrict access to affordable medicines for millions of people. The US is refusing to back down from dangerous provisions that will impede timely access to affordable medicines.

It’s encouraging to see that some governments, including Canada, Chile, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Singapore, are pushing back against some aspects of the US. position with their own proposal that better protects access to medicines; what is troubling is that the text also shows that some countries are willing to give in to the US government’s damaging demands. We urge countries to stand strong to ensure that the harmful terms are removed before this deal is finalised.”
- See more at: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article.cfm?id=7145&cat=field-news#sthash.c2ZSgbVl.dpuf

[idwiyo]

1. k&r

[Enthusiast]

22. Me too. K&R.........nt

[LuvNewcastle]

2. Those other countries need to learn how to pay outrageous prices for drugs

like the U.S. has for all these years. Why didn't the ACA fix our problems with the drug companies? Why aren't we allowed to negotiate prices for drugs like Canada and other countries do? They weren't even allowed to consider that when the ACA was being written.

[Wilms]

3. ^

[Uncle Joe]

4. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, cali.

[scheming daemons]

5. Can someone please post a copy of the provisions so we can see what they say?

The leaks are from 2011.

What do the provisions say NOW?

[cali]

6. seriously? look, everything that's been leaked

from the draft text has been just awful. What on earth makes you think that the U.S. has changed its tune? Could you post any evidence whatsofucking ever of that? Anything?

[Capt. Obvious]

7. No, but I bet he can your post hidden

[cali]

8. they're good at that.

here's what I think of them:

- - - - - - - - - - -s. multiplied.

[scheming daemons]

9. A) The TPP hasn't been signed and B) We don't know what is CURRENTLY in it

It is hard for me to have an opinion on something that I haven't read.


What was in the draft in 2011 is bad. I agree. I don't know if that is what is in it now, and neither do you.


In addition... Nothing has been agreed to or signed.... So we're talking about something that might not even happen.


Just like the war in Syria, the cuts to Social Security, the defense of DOMA, and the other half dozen things that never occurred but got everybody spun up on DU.


You want me to be outraged about something the President hasn't even done yet. Something that we don't even have any idea what it currently says.


Sorry... Show me something concrete besides "this is what they were thinking of doing 2 years ago, so I'm sure it is just as bad now, and Obama's going to sign it!!11!!!elevens!!!"

[cali]

10. we've seen enough drafts to know what the U.S. is pushing for

period. And this has zip to do with Syria and everything to do with previous FTAs and what we KNOW was in them regarding such things as investor "rights".

You've been shown concrete facts in the way of drafts over and over.

Your denial of reality is sad and embarrassing.

[scheming daemons]

12. You're outraged over ghosts

The TPP hasn't been finalized... and it certainly hasn't been agreed to.


The point about Syria and the other items I listed is that you, and others, get spun up out of control over something you think the President is going to do.... and then he doesn't do it.... and you fail to learn the lesson of premature outrage even though it has happened over and over and over again.


I have a hard time getting outraged over hypotheticals that may or may not happen.


You don't.


Oh well.

[cali]

15. nope. I'm outraged over analysis like this:

<snip>

The leaked draft is 95 pages long, and includes provisions on everything from copyright damages to rules for marketing pharmaceuticals. Several proposed items are drawn from Hollywood's wish list. The United States wants all signatories to extend their copyright terms to the life of the author plus 70 years for individual authors, and 95 years for corporate-owned works. The treaty includes a long section, proposed by the United States, requiring the creation of legal penalties for circumventing copy-protection schemes such as those that prevent copying of DVDs and Kindle books.

The United States has also pushed for a wide variety of provisions that would benefit the U.S. pharmaceutical and medical device industries. The Obama administration wants to require the extension of patent protection to plants, animals, and medical procedures. It wants to require countries to offer longer terms of patent protection to compensate for delays in the patent application process. The United States also wants to bar the manufacturers of generic drugs from relying on safety and efficacy information that was previously submitted by a brand-name drug maker — a step that would make it harder for generic manufacturers to enter the pharmaceutical market and could raise drug prices.

<snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/11/13/leaked-treaty-is-a-hollywood-wish-list-could-it-derail-obamas-trade-agenda/

and this:

<snip>

Canadian intellectual property expert Michael Geist examined the latest draft of the intellectual property chapter. He writes that the document, which includes various nations' proposals, shows the US government, in particular, taking a vastly different stance than the other nations. Geist notes:

[Other nations have argued for] balance, promotion of the public domain, protection of public health, and measures to ensure that IP rights themselves do not become barriers to trade. The opposition to these objective[s] by the US and Japan (Australia has not taken a position) speaks volumes about their goals for the TPP.

The medical industry has a stake in the outcome, too, with credible critics saying it would raise drug prices and, according to Love's analysis, give surgeons patent protection for their procedures.

<snip>

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/13/trans-pacific-paternership-intellectual-property

but don't worry your pretty head about it. After all, this could just be mean made up stuff to attack the President. Or whatever it is that you're saying.

[truedelphi]

26. Huffington Post, The Guardian, and Democracy Now have new

Wikileaks leaks that prove what terrible practices this TPP will make the world endure.

Thanks so much for trying to get everyone a bit more aware of all of it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/11/13/tpp-canada-trans-pacific-partnership_n_4266866.html

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/13/trans-pacific-paternership-intellectual-property

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/11/14/tpp_exposed_wikileaks_publishes_secret_trade

All these links are offering new information, from Nov 2013 and not 2011.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. Maybe Wikileaks will come to the rescue and tell us what the new scheme is.

Seeing as how our(?) government is keeping it secret.

[NuclearDem]

21. You know how they can fix that?

Show us what's in it.

But the government won't, because if the leaked portions are anything to go on, just about everyone is going to hate it. Hence why they have to negotiate it in secret.

[cali]

11. Wow. the blind denial and abject partisanship of some, is unbelievable.

[LongTomH]

14. The more I read about this horrible 'partnership,' the more I'm convinced that it's just plain evil!

I don't think there's any possibility of 'fixing' it by "removing harmful terms." It just needs to be killed.

Sadly, even if we kill it in the current congress and administration, the whole thing will be be back under a different name. What was that about "Eternal Vigilance?"

[treestar]

16. What are the opinions of others on drug prices in the TPP?

What is the basis of those prices, and why should we be against them?

[cali]

18. I've seen nothing but disgusted criticism

Big Pharma may have some kind words for it.

[Incitatus]

23. It appears they are trying to kick generic drugs out of the markets in other countries.

From MSF:

"For pharmaceuticals and other health commodities, stronger IP regimes mean extended patent monopolies and delayed generic competition, and that translates into higher prices for people who need medicines. In developing countries, where people rarely have health insurance and must pay for medicines out of pocket, high prices keep lifesaving medicines out of reach and are often a matter of life and death.

Billed as a model agreement not just for countries in the Asia-Pacific region, but the world over, the TPP is on track to set a damaging precedent with serious implications for many developing countries where MSF works, and beyond. Governments have a responsibility to ensure that public health interests are not trampled by commercial interests, and must resist pressures to erode hard-fought legal safeguards for public health that represent a lifeline for people in developing countries. MSF urges the U.S. government to withdraw—and all other TPP negotiating governments to reject—provisions that will harm access to medicines."

http://www.msfaccess.org/spotlight-on/trans-pacific-partnership-agreement

[treestar]

24. So we're talking about the patents on new drugs?

And that they should be as short as possible, since generic competition lowers the price? So the various countries are attempting to make their rules uniform by a trade agreement?

Which countries hold out for longer patents? For what reason?

How does it damage us and/or how does it benefit us - how to weigh those factors?

[Incitatus]

25. Other countries have their own patent laws.

So if Pfizer makes a medication and wants to sell it in the UK, they have to get a separate patent in the UK and other countries where they want to sell. This is why the same asthma medications cost many times more in the US than in the UK. When the propellant used was banned and the inhalers had to use something else that had nothing to do with the medicine itself, pharmaceutical companies in the US got new patents based on that change and kicked the generics out of the market. The UK basically told them to go f themselves and let the generics stay.

Here's an article about that:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/us/the-soaring-cost-of-a-simple-breath.html?_r=0


The countries that hold out for the longest patents, my guess would be the countries mostly controlled by big pharma like the US. The reason, obviously $$$.

I think the damage is pretty obvious. Higher cost means less access to anyone who needs it. I don't see any potential benefit to this, unless you have a financial interest in the pharmaceutical industry. Their intention seems to make the patent laws in countries more favorable to generics much stricter.

[Union Scribe]

17. They never loved him! nt

[WillyT]

19. K & R !!!

[Laelth]

20. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth