The editor:
For Canadians who have been rejoicing over the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, please be warned.
There are many obscure provisions in this agreement that will, for many years, hang around our necks like the proverbial dead albatross.
Here is just one of the examples highlighted by Nobel Prize-winner Joseph E. Stiglitz:
“The TPP would manage trade in pharmaceuticals through a variety of seemingly arcane rule changes on issues such as ‘patent linkage,’ ‘data exclusivity’ and ‘biologics.’ The upshot is that pharmaceutical companies would effectively be allowed to extend — sometimes almost indefinitely — their monopolies on patented medicines, keep cheaper generics off the market, and block ‘bio-similar’ competitors
from introducing new medicines for years.”
The potential saving from bulk purchasing genetic pharmaceutical is enormous.
This one provision alone in the TPP agreement will threaten the survival of our Medicare system as we know it. Because of the lack of transparency we should be careful what we wish for.
Bev Currie
Swift Current, SK
