Trans-Pacific Trade Deal Threatens Access to Affordable Medicines

KUALA LUMPUR, JULY 3, 2013—Countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement* with the US should follow Malaysia’s lead in refusing harmful intellectual property proposals and assuring that people will continue to be able to access affordable medicines in the future, stressed the Malaysian AIDS Council (MAC), Third World Network (TWN), Positive Malaysian Treatment Access & Advocacy Group (MTAAG+), and the medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today at the International AIDS Society conference. "By hosting an international AIDS conference, Malaysia is demonstrating its commitment to global health, and as host of the next round of TPP trade negotiations in just two weeks, Malaysia should solidify this commitment by firming up its recent pledge not to accept harmful provisions in the trade deal that will harm access to medicines, including HIV medicines," said Edward Low, director of MTAAG+. "The Malaysian minister of international trade and industry Mustapha Mohamed recently said that Malaysia wouldn’t sign the TPP trade deal if it will cause medicine prices to rise. This is a very encouraging statement, and we plan to hold him to his word." As delegates meet in Kuala Lumpur for the IAS conference, the alarm is being raised that time is running out to fix the flawed TPP agreement, which currently contains a number of proposals from the US that, if agr...
Source: MSF News - Category: Global & Universal Source Type: news