Najib, Rosmah and the rich will not be affected because they can most likely afford to pay the high cost of best medicines and clinical procedures as and when they become available. Now, the rest of us only may have access to these very same medicines 8-12 years later ... because our governments agreed to this in some trade agreement like the TPPA. How many lives of not-so-very-rich people's lives could have been saved if only some of these medicines/vaccines/anti-toxins, etc
at least half a billion people will be unable to access medicines once the TPP takes effect.
When a poor man dies not because there is no cure but because he cannot afford it, something is very very wrong..
When it comes to medicines, vaccines, medical techniques, surgical advancements, etc - it cannot and should not be treated like every other products, commodities, scientific breakthroughs and discoveries, etc where the first concern seem to be the 'making of money' ...
TPPA, unfortunately, negates this core value of the primary importance of human lives, that is ALL human lives not just the lives of the rich and powerful. It allows issues like copyright, business interest and profits to take precedence over human lives - this is immoral and wrong.
TPP Is ‘Worst Trade Agreement’ for Medicine Access, Says Doctors Without Borders
“The negative impact of the TPP on public health will be enormous." Doctors Without Borders warns that half a billion people will be unable to access medicines once the TPP takes effect—especially in developing countries.
– “The TPP
[Trans-Pacific Partnership] will…go down in history as the worst trade
agreement for access to medicines in developing countries,” said Doctors
without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in a statement following
the signing of the TPP trade deal.
The controversial agreement is the largest trade deal in a
generation, bringing together 12 countries around the world including
the United States to govern 40 percent of the world’s economy.
Negotiations on the TPP deal, initiated in 2008, finally came to a
conclusion on Oct. 5 in the southern US city of Atlanta. It includes a
range of economic policies including lowered tariffs as well as
standards for labor law, environmental regulation, and international
investments.
“This partnership levels the playing field for our farmers, ranchers,
and manufacturers by eliminating more than 18,000 taxes that various
countries put on our products,” said US President Barack Obama in a statement
following the end of negotiations. He also noted that the deal has the
“strongest” commitments on labor and the environment of any trade
agreement in history.
Though the deal has yet to be formally adopted by the signatories’
legislative bodies, it has already received criticism from numerous
civil society members, including MSF, whose main concern arises from the
deal’s provisions on data protection for biologic drugs.
Biologic drugs include any therapy from a biological source including
vaccines, anti-toxins and monoclonal antibodies for diseases including
cancer and HIV/AIDS.
According
to the Brookings Institution, a US-based think tank, biologics are
larger and structurally more complex than other drugs, making them more
difficult and costly to develop. On average, biologics cost 22 times
more than nonbiologics.
Due to these high costs, companies utilize data from the original
drug creator to develop “biosimilars,” cheaper, generic versions of
biologics. MSF has stated that this competition is the “best way to reduce drug prices and improve access to treatment.”
For instance, MSF treats almost 300,000 people with HIV/AIDS in 21
countries with generic drugs. These drugs have reduced the
organization’s cost of treatment from US$10,000 per patient per year to
US$140 per patient per year.
However, in the US, biologics creators have 12 years of data
exclusivity. During this period, the US Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) cannot approve a biosimilar that utilizes original biologic data.
Data protection rules vary in other countries, while Peru, Chile and Mexico do not have any biologics data rules at all.
As part of the TPP negotiations, the U.S. sought to include the
12-year protection rule. Trade ministers went back and forth on the
rule, finally settling on a mandatory minimum of five to eight years of
data protection.
As a result, biosimilars will not be able to enter the market in
countries that previously had no restrictions. According to MSF, this
will lead to high, sustained drug prices by pharmaceutical companies,
preventing individuals and health providers from acquiring affordable
and essential medicines.
MSF predicts that at least half a billion people will be unable to access medicines once the TPP takes effect.
“The big losers in the TPP are patients and treatment providers in developing countries,” MSF said in its statement.
The organization urged governments and its legislatures to consider the consequences.
“The negative impact of the TPP on public health will be enormous, be
felt for years to come, and will
not be limited to the current 12 TPP
countries, as it is a dangerous blueprint for future agreements,” MSF
warned. - Nation of Change http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/10/08/tpp-is-worst-trade-agreement-for-medicine-access-says-doctors-without-borders/
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