Medicines Australia criticizes alarmist reporting on Trans Pacific Partnership's impact on pharma

Australia’s representative body for the pharma industry has hit back against “alarmist and misguided reporting” on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and its impact on medicine pricing.

Medicines Australia has spoken against media scare-mongering around the TPP and says it is unwarranted. The TPP is a proposed free trade agreement under negotiation between Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the USA and Vietnam. Critics have said that it would give big pharma companies new rights and powers to increase medicine prices and limit the access to generics, but Medicines Australia disagrees.

Tim James, the body’s chief executive, said: “The same fearmongering about price rises for medicines and the collapse of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) happened a decade ago when Australia negotiated a Free Trade Agreement with the United States and those claims have proven to be completely false. Trade deals, including the TPP, are good for the Australian economy. They open up vast new markets for Australian companies, such as the makers of innovative medicines and vaccines, because they reduce trade barriers.”