OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan. 29, 2016) - Provisions relating to access to medicines in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal will cement high drug prices and undermine the health of hundreds of millions of people for generations, the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions/CUPE (OCHU) charged today. The TPP has been negotiated between Canada, the U.S. and 10 other Pacific Rim countries.
"The Harper government negotiated a trade deal that will raise the price of drugs and reduce the availability of lower cost generics, and strengthen and create new patent and regulatory monopolies for pharmaceutical products. The federal Liberal government should not sign off on this deal. This is simply a continuation of the 'race to the bottom' economics of the Harper government," says Michael Hurley, president of OCHU.
There are many concerns that have been raised about the TPP deal. Chief among them are criticisms that the deal poses a growing and unaffordable financial burden on Ontario consumers and hospitals (that provide drugs free to inpatients) and will deprive citizens of poorer countries of access to life saving medicines because of cost.
"People in poorer countries will die because of the lack of access to affordable medicines, while the drug companies will grow even wealthier. The drug companies do not need the protection of the Trudeau government - consumers and patients in Canada and around the Pacific Rim do," says Hurley.
Doctors Without Borders has raised the alarm on:
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