Trade deal would hamper lower-cost drugs: Selby

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/10/2015 (3683 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal will prevent Canada from changing drug-marketing laws to lower prescription-drug costs for provinces and patients, former Manitoba health minister and NDP candidate Erin Selby said Wednesday. Selby, who resigned as the MLA for Southdale to run for the federal NDP in Saint Boniface-Saint Vital, told the Free Press she is extremely concerned about the inclusion of protections for brand-name pharmaceuticals in the trade deal hammered out last weekend between 12 Pacific Rim nations.

“This agreement ties our hands for the future,” Selby said. “Generic drugs make a huge difference in terms of cost.”

Canada has been negotiating this deal, known as the TPP, for years. The final issues, including how to handle intellectual-property rights for certain types of drugs known as biologics, were hammered out between trade ministers in Atlanta over the weekend.

Biologics are included in a class of drugs such as vaccines, blood products and gene therapies, which are used in the treatment of a wide range of diseases including cancer and arthritis. In many cases, these are the only treatments available for these diseases.

The full text of the agreement is not yet public, but it is known the TPP includes an agreement to set “data-exclusivity windows” for biologics at eight years. Australia got an exemption to keep their windows at five years.

When a company makes a drug, it must submit testing data to authorities to have the drug approved for sale. Generic-drug makers rely on that data to apply for their own licence to sell the drug once patents and exclusive marketing rights have ended.

Data-exclusivity windows are periods of time during which generic-drug makers cannot use the data submitted by the original drug company to seek approval for their generic version of the product. It means generic-drug makers either have to run their own tests or wait longer to apply, extending the period of time more expensive, brand-name pharmaceuticals are the only ones available on the market.

Canada’s window for this is already at eight years, but Selby said the TPP will mean that can never be reduced.

“I don’t think during an election campaign, anyone has the authority to do that,” she said.

Selby did not say the NDP would have reduced this period of time, however.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Paul Samyn | Editor's Note

Wednesdays

A weekly dispatch from the head of the Free Press newsroom.

Sign up for Paul Samyn | Editor's Note

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Doctors Without Borders has also been concerned this data exclusivity will be enshrined, making it more expensive to get life-saving drugs in developing nations.

The Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association was pleased the TPP didn’t increase the exclusivity window to 12 years, which was being sought by the big pharmaceutical companies. It noted Canada did not give up any more than it already did under the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) made with Europe.

Winnipeg North Liberal incumbent Kevin Lamoureux said the TPP needs a thorough airing and debate in the House of Commons before anyone signs it. But Lamoureux said the NDP has dismissed the entire thing before really knowing the entirety of what is in it.

The Liberals were critical of the secrecy with which the Conservatives approached the TPP negotiations, but have said they will need to see the fine print of the agreement before deciding whether to support it.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca