US Shifts Stance On Drug Pricing In Pacific Trade Pact Talks, Document Reveals

From the New York Times: WASHINGTON — Facing resistance from its Pacific trading partners, the Obama administration is no longer demanding protection for pharmaceutical prices under the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, according to a newly leaked “transparency” annex of the proposed trade accord.

But American negotiators are still pressing participating governments to open up the process that sets reimbursement rates for drugs and medical devices. Public health professionals, generic drugmakers and activists opposed to the trade deal, which is still being negotiated, contend that it will empower big pharmaceutical firms to command higher reimbursement rates in the United States and abroad, at the expense of consumers.

They also say that it could expose international markets to the direct consumer appeals that Americans have experienced. …

The pharmaceutical and medical device annex is the latest document obtained by The New York Times in collaboration with the watchdog group WikiLeaks, and it was released ahead of the House vote on whether to give President Obama expanded powers to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The Senate has already approved legislation giving the president “trade promotion authority,” or fast-track power to complete trade deals that cannot be amended or filibustered by Congress. A House vote on final passage of the bill, which could come as early as Friday, appears extremely close.

The full New York Times story is available here.

Wikileaks Release

The Wikileaks announcement and release is here.

It states: “Expert policy analysis, published by WikiLeaks today, shows that the Annex appears to be designed to cripple New Zealand’s strong public healthcare programme and to inhibit the adoption of similar programmes in developing countries. The Annex will also tie the hands of the US Congress in its ability to pursue reforms of the Medicare programme.”

Wikileaks says the draft is restricted from release for four years after the passage of the TPP into law.

Wikileaks Publisher Julian Assange issued this statement: “It is a mistake to think of the TPP as a single treaty. In reality there are three conjoined mega-agreements, the TiSA, the TPP and the TTIP, all of which strategically assemble into a grand unified treaty, partitioning the world into the west versus the rest. This “Great Treaty” is descibed by the Pentagon as the economic core to the US military’s “Asia Pivot”. The architects are aiming no lower than the arc of history. The Great Treaty is taking shape in complete secrecy, because along with its undebated geostrategic ambitions it locks into place an aggressive new form of transnational corporatism for which there is little public support.”

[Note: Intellectual Property Watch recently obtained 400 pages of confidential emails from the US Trade Representative’s office showing lobbying efforts by the pharmaceutical industry and others (IPW, US Policy, 5 June 2015).]