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Lives at stake in TPP trade deal (xpost from FA)
http://atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/GECON-01-100314.html
Lives at stake in TPP trade deal
By Martin Khor
Mar 10, '14
GENEVA - If you or some family members or friends suffer from cancer, hepatitis, AIDS, asthma or other serious ailments, it's worth your while to follow the negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement and other similar bilateral trade agreements. It's really a matter of life and death. For the TPPA can cut off the potential supply of cheaper generic medicines that can save lives, especially when the original branded products are priced so sky-high that very few can afford them.
Recently, a cancer specialist in New Zealand (one of the TPPA counties) warned that the TPPA would prolong the high cost of treating breast cancer because of new rules to protect biotechnology-based cancer drugs from competition from generics. And this will affect the lives of cancer patients.
Some cancer medicines can cost a patient over US$100,000 for a year's treatment. But generic versions could be produced for a fraction, making it possible for patients to hope for a cure and a reprieve from death.
In India, local companies are leading the fight to make medicines more affordable to thousands of patients suffering from breast, kidney, liver and gastrointestinal cancer and chronic leukemia.
