Public Citizen slams latest USTR moves on Trans-Pacific Partnership

At the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations in Atlanta, the US Trade Representative (USTR) is pushing the same harmful pharmaceutical proposal that many countries have rejected as recently as August – but wrapped in different packaging, according to US consumer advocacy Public Citizen.

The tactic is designed to break negotiators’ impasse over biotech drugs. The TPP talks in Maui (Hawaii) collapsed a month ago when trade ministers sparred over several issues including biologics exclusivity. But the US proposal would give pharmaceutical companies additional monopoly protections at the expense of public budgets and people’s health, Public Citizen said yesterday.

The USTR has long pushed for increased marketing exclusivity periods for biologics – medical products derived from living organisms, including many new and forthcoming cancer treatments. Exclusivity means product monopolies, with no competition from generics or biosimilars; medicine prices in the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars per person; and the rationing of treatment access.