JAN 21 — Am going to get straight to the point here.

IDEAS chief, Wan Saiful Wan Jan, has said I am deliberately attacking the Transpacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) because I am an anti- liberalization campaigner.

His observation about me fighting tooth and nail against the TPPA just because of my anti-liberalization stand is flawed.

I am not being dogmatic but fighting for peoples’ access to affordable medicine, which will be hampered by profits, extended patents, ever-greening and the choking of generic medicine, if the TPPA comes through.

The trade agreement, as it stands, allows for patent extension. That is the key point - it allows for patent extension, thus effectively blocking cheaper, generic medication to reach the public earlier.

It would undermine competition from generic medicine by extending the patent rights of pharmaceutical companies, allowing them to extend their monopolies and continue charging exorbitant prices for life-saving drugs.

Prior studies of the effects of increased intellectual property protection in Jordan produced conflicting results.

So while Wan Saiful argued that the US-Jordan FTA was beneficial for Jordan, a 2007 article in the Journal of World Intellectual Property analysed the TRIPS-plus provisions of the FTA and found that the claimed benefits from the FTA have been exaggerated and the costs underestimated.

The article notes that Jordan had a vibrant domestic pharmaceutical industry prior to the FTA which was geared toward export.

It concluded there is no evidence to support claims that the FTA has enhanced availability and accessibility of medicines in Jordan, attracted foreign investment, improved the research & development capacity of local manufacturers or led to more collaboration between national and multinational pharmaceutical companies.

Another study of the FTA, published in 2007 by Oxfam, found that medicine prices have increased significantly in Jordan since the FTA, partly as a result of TRIPS-plus rules.

It concludes stronger Intellectual Property protections have produced minimal benefits to foreign direct investment, domestic research & development and the introduction of new medicines.

The report predicted that medicine prices will continue to rise in Jordan but that the country will be unable to use TRIPS safeguards to reduce their price.

A few years later, the Medicines Transparency Alliance (MeTA), commissioned a report to investigate the effects of increased intellectual property protection on access to medicines in Jordan.

It was conducted by an international, research team that included representatives from the Jordanian government, originator and generics industries, academics and health care providers.

The study found that the delay of generic medicines due to enhanced Intellectual Property protection is estimated to have cost Jordanian private consumers approximately 18 million US dollars annually.

And adjusting for increased sales volume and inflation, during a five-year period spanning the time before and after Jordan’s WTO membership and the FTA, there has been a 17 percent increase in the total expenditure per year for medicines in Jordan.

Therefore, we can continue arguing for and against the TPPA but what’s really important is to be able to say, without an iota of doubt, that the people and especially those needing life-saving medicines will have access to affordable medicine after the TPPA is ratified.

And clearly, as no one can say so, the TPPA should be scrapped if the government does not want to compromise on public health and the needs of its citizens who simply cannot afford expensive drugs to stay alive.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.