The Hill: TPP would make medicine a luxury for developing nations
Nicholas Archer, contributor to Economics21 and student at Hillsdale College

“…The [Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)] agreement offers many benefits, but contains several troubling provisions, including one that would force member countries to implement strong monopoly protections for newly introduced biologics. … In the case of biologics, the most visible cost of intellectual property protections are the increased prices. … It is … difficult to imagine that countries such as Malaysia will see large improvements in their biologic industry if they adopt more stringent IP protections. … There may be a defensible argument that strengthening the U.S. biologics industry is more important than providing cheaper medication to Malaysians. But using economic power to force other nations to adopt policies that conform to this opinion is unacceptable. … [I]f other nations are forced to follow America’s dictates, many people will be denied life-saving medicine. The TPP cannot be amended before it comes to a vote. But there is hope to amend this provision in the future, and to keep such protectionism out of the American agenda in other trade agreements that will surely follow” (8/3).