The US pharmaceutical industry says it had to swallow a bitter pill to conclude the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks in Atlanta on 5 October, but health campaigners disagree. Scheduled to end on the previous Friday, the talks dragged on through the weekend because of tough talks on legal protections for original biologic medicines. US pharma companies had insisted on extending the country’s 12-year ‘data exclusivity’ legal window for certain biologic drugs, aimed at treating cancer and other life-threatening diseases, to the entire 12-country trade bloc. They did not succeed, but the compromise does not suit everyone.
TPP negotiators have agreed on a five-year window; factoring in another three years of ‘regulatory review’, this would undercut the US position by four years, while lengthening exclusivity to countries like Vietnam, which has no data exclusivity timeframe under its current law. The five-year guarantee did, however, match existing protection in TPP members Australia and New Zealand, and effectively matches that imposed in Canada. The TPP encompasses the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Peru, Chile and Brunei. Together, these economies account for 40% of global GDP.
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