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Tuesday, July 16, 2013

TPPA will mean death for some

Malaysian Aids Council says Malaysia is already paying some of the highest prices for HIV drugs among developing countries, signing the TPPA will make a bad situation even worse.
PETALING JAYA: Strict provisions under the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will reduce access to affordable medicines, claimed the Malaysian Aids Council (MAC).
In a joint statement with various Malaysian health associations, the council claimed that deprivation of affordable medicines will result in increased burden of disease, increased morbidity and indirectly, productivity and human resources losses that will affect the economy of the nation.
According to the council, generic medicines save lives by preventing and curing non-communicable and communicable diseases for all Malaysians, especially the lower-income and marginalised groups.
Malaysia is currently negotiating with 11 other countries to conclude the TPPA, a multi-lateral trade agreement involving Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States (US), Vietnam and Japan.
The 18th round of negotiations are currently underway in Kota Kinabalu.
The TPPA is an agreement that the US, as the leading negotiator, is hoping to ink to consolidate its role in developing a broader platform for trade liberalisation, particularly throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
“This economic and social burden will lie on the government. When medicines are expensive, people will eventually run out of money and turn to government hospitals for treatment.
“Treatment of non-communicable diseases and communicable diseases alike require affordable generic medicines and affordable technology, and we categorically oppose the US’ demands for longer and stronger patents on medicines and medical technologies that are essential to save Malaysian lives,” said the council.
The council also stressed how many other conditions depend on generic medicines, with cancer, tuberculosis, and malaria just to name a few.
“According to the 2011 National Health and Morbidity Survey, 2.6 million Malaysians are diabetic. 80% of these people attend government clinics and hospitals, meaning that a majority of them take generic medicines.
“Patented medicines are very expensive because the company holding the patent has the exclusive right to make or import that medicine for a 20-year period. The US wants to extend this period.
“This means that Malaysians will be denied access to cheaper generic versions of medicines for extra years,” it said.
Malaysia already paying more
The council further claimed that the US is also demanding strict border control measures which enable TPP governments to seize generic medicines when being imported, exported or in transit, so long as they look confusingly similar to trademarked goods.
“All of these are tricks to ensure that Malaysians are forced to use expensive patented medicines for longer periods of time, so US-based innovators of medicine earn more profits,” said the council.
Echoing MAC’s concerns,  French NGO Doctors without Borders (MSF) in a statement today said most HIV drugs needed by people who have developed resistance to their first set of medicines “are already priced too high for publicly-funded treatment programs in countries negotiating the TPP.”
MSF’s Access campaign spokesman Leena Menghaney said: “As more and more people medically require a new regimen of HIV drugs, we could be looking at a potential crisis, where people aren’t able to get the lifesaving treatment they need.
“If countries sign up to the TPP agreement that makes access to affordable HIV medicines more difficult, the HIV response in these countries will be under serious threat.”
Several of the provisions being pushed by the US facilitate the practice of so-called ‘evergreening,’ whereby pharmaceutical companies undermine access to affordable medicines by using a variety of tactics to extend monopoly protection on drugs beyond the initial 20-year patent period.
Of crucial concern is that countries that sign the TPPA will have to amend their patent laws to abide by whatever provisions set out in the final agreement.
“If countries like Malaysia and Vietnam are part of an agreement that hinders the availability of affordable generics, people living with HIV who have exhausted all other treatment options will again face death,” said MAC’s Fifa Rahman.
“In Malaysia, we are already paying some of the highest prices for HIV drugs among developing countries—the TPP trade deal could make this bad situation even worse,” she added.

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