DFAT urged on drug pact
October 4, 2013
Seven Australian health NGOs
have banded together to urge the
new Coalition government to reject
“extreme intellectual property
privileges” which are being
proposed as part of the negotiations
for a major regional trade deal.
The Trans Pacific Partnership
Agreement will be discussed in Bali,
Indonesia next week, and the new
Australian government has not yet
revealed its positions on health and
medicines for the pact.
The NGOs include the Public
Health Association Australia,
Medecins Sans Frontieres, Palliative
Care Australia and the Australian
Federation of AIDS Organisations.
They say that proposals by the
United States mean that the
Agreement “has the potential to
become the most harmful trade
pact ever for access to medicines”
because it would potentially
contain “monopoly provisions for
drug companies”.
However an alternative proposal
is a more moderate set of
intellectual property provisions
closer to the World Trade
Organization’s TRIPS Agreement,
which allows flexibility for each
country to determine the level
of IP protection suited to its own
circumstances.
The Australian Department of
Foreign Affairs and Trade is being
urged to reject the US proposal and
support efforts by other countries
to adopt standards based on TRIPS.
According to Public Health
Association ceo Michael Moore,
“The US proposals for medicines in
the TPPA would raise the costs of
medicines for our Pharmaceutical
Benefits Scheme - and some of
these costs are likely to be passed
onto the most vulnerable groups in
our population”.
This includes people with HIV/
AIDS in developing countries,
with increasing access to suitable
medications depending on the
availability of affordable generics.
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