As negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement move to Malaysia this week, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) urges negotiating countries to remove terms that could block people from accessing affordable medicines, choke off production of generic medicines, and constrain the ability of governments to pass laws in the interest of public health.
With negotiators under pressure to finalize a deal, time is running out to fix the flawed TPP agreement, which currently contains a number of United States proposals that will extend monopoly protection on high-priced pharmaceuticals and delay the entry of affordable generic medicines. Restrictive intellectual property provisions could seriously constrain the role that pharmaceutical producers across Asia currently play in providing affordable medicines to both developed and developing countries; for example, by putting up new patent barriers that restrict the production and distribution of generics. Full story
