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

[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.