If TPP passes, kiss your generic drugs goodbye [View all]

[99th_Monkey]

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, Drug Patents and President Clinton
Monday, 22 June 2015 00:00 * By Dean Baker * Truthout | Op-Ed

There are many serious issues raised by the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), but the one that may have the greatest long-term impact is its provisions on drug patents. The explicit purpose is to make patent protection stronger and longer. While these provisions are likely to lead to higher drug prices in the United States, they will have their greatest impact in the developing world.

In most developing countries drugs are far cheaper than in the United States. This is especially the case in India. The country has a world-class generic industry that produces high quality drugs that typically sell for a small fraction of the price in the United States. For example, the generic version of the Hepatitis C drug Sovaldi can be purchased in India for less than $1,000 a treatment. The patent protected version sells in the United States for $84,000.

The US drug industry desperately wants to eliminate this sort of price gap, which can exceed a ratio of one hundred to one. While India is not in the TPP, the goal of TPP proponents is to expand the pact over time so that India would eventually be included and therefore be subject to its strong patent rules.

This should have everyone very worried. The patent system is a horribly outmoded method of financing research that dates from the 15th century. The idea is that the government provides an incentive for innovation by giving the inventor a patent monopoly over use of the innovation for a period of time. This is problematic for the all the reasons that government enforced monopolies are generally a bad idea, but the problems in the case of prescription drugs are especially serious.

More: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/31492-the-trans-pacific-partnership-drug-patents-and-president-clinton