[Ip-health] Bloomberg on Generics and the Trade Deal

[Mike Palmedo]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aaYycXo3bFyo&refer=home

Congress, Bush Forge Deal on Peru, Panama Trade (Update1)

By Kim Chipman
Bloomberg
May 11

[snip]

Generic Drugs

The agreement also would allow generic drugs to enter another country
more quickly. That provision would apply only to Peru, Panama and
Colombia, not South Korea, Schwab said.

While Democrats have been seeking the labor provisions, business groups
said the standards may rebound against the U.S., leading to challenges
of U.S. law, including those that restrict strikes by government workers.

U.S. drugmakers have objected to provisions that would make it easier
for foreign competitors to produce generic drugs. The U.S. manufacturers
say they should be protected from such competition because they bear the
cost of developing the drugs.

"The pharmaceutical industry is being singled out and punished," [Bill
Morley, senior vice president in Washington of MWW Group, a lobbying
firm representing clients with an interest in international trade,
including the American Chamber of Commerce of Peru] said. The result may
be that they will do less business in those countries, hurting people's
ability to get needed drugs," he said.

"We will see what happens in the Senate," said Democratic Senator
Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who campaigned last year against Bush's trade
policy. "I am not convinced yet that the House will be able to move
forward on those agreements. This trade policy, it has failed American
workers."

--
Mike Palmedo
Research Coordinator
Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property
American University, Washington College of Law
4910 Massachutsetts Ave., NW Washington, DC 20016
T - 202-274-4442 | F 202-274-0659
mpalmedo@wcl.american.edu