Leaked New Zealand paper challenges major Pharma companies in Trans-Pacific trade negotiations

A confidential Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) negotiating paper authored by New Zealand suggests that the trade pact’s patent and copyright provisions be no more stringent than existing global standards. Warning that the New Zealand position still poses some risks for access to medicines, US consumer advocacy group Public Citizen applauds this direct challenge to the monopoly interests of major pharmaceutical corporations.

Meanwhile, the US-based pharmaceutical industry on Friday requested that the American government push for “the highest possible” regional intellectual property protections and changes to the policies of New Zealand’s Pharmaceutical Management Agency (PHARMAC) through the TPPA. If the drug industry prevails, access to medicines could be at risk, it said.

Pharma-favored provisions included in many recent US trade deals extend drug company monopolies and keep prices high. But price-lowering generic competition is essential to advancing global access to medicines. For example, says Public Citizen, over the past 10 years, generic competition has played a key role in reducing the costs of first-line HIV/AIDS medicines by 99%, enabling 5.2 million people worldwide to access lifesaving treatment.