CPhI: 2015 Mega Trade Pacts and Their Impact On the Pharmaceutical Markets, Dilip G Shah (I): Brands

Future of the Pharmaceutical Market

The chronology of events indicates that the U.S. will first conclude the TPPA and use it as a benchmark to negotiate the TTIP. The 11 Pacific Rim countries, looking for access to the US market, are more vulnerable and prone to giving in to the USTR pressure than the EU. Among them, only three countries namely, Australia, Canada and New Zealand are known to evaluate trade-offs between the public health and other sectors. Japan has been a moot supporter of the US for pharmaceuticals in various trade forums. It is already practising most of what is being negotiated. This leaves seven countries. They may be lured by the preferential treatment in sectors like textiles, minerals, leather footwear, coffee, rice, rubber, wood and wood products, palm oil, fruits, fish and fish products, paper and pulp, etc. Consequently, the pharmaceutical industry will face disruptions across all major markets.

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Todo sobre el TPP en PHARMACOSERÍAS

The brand name industry will be a major beneficiary of the trade pacts:

-It will be able to improve its price realization in the low-priced markets.

-It will be able to delay generic competition in all markets, including the US. and the EU. This would however be not without a certain cost. Its consumers (the patients) will be unhappy. Its customers (the doctors) will complain of unwarranted high prices of medicines, as they did for Novartis’ Glivec.

-Businesses and corporations will be concerned for rapid rises in the healthcare cost of their employees. The law makers (parliamentarians), feeling cheated by the trade negotiators, will target the brand name industry for rise in medicine prices.

-The civil society and health activists will raise their banners for denying access to affordable medicines. The net outcome would be a poorer image of the brand-name industry.

Ver también:
Guerra por las patentes: cómo el Tratado del Transpacífico afectará el precio y acceso a los nuevos medicamentos en la región