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Article

17 Nov 2021

Author:
Jon Stone, The Independent

UK: Joining Pacific trade deal risks raising drug prices for NHS

'‘Clear risk’ UK joining Pacific trade deal will raise drug prices for NHS', 17 November 2021

"There is a "clear risk" that joining a major Pacific trading agreement will raise drug prices for Britain's NHS, peers have warned. Ministers have said they want Britain to joint the so-called trans-pacific partnership (CPTPP) – a major trading bloc that includes countries like Vietnam, Australia, and Mexico.

But a report by the cross-party House of Lords International Agreement Committee found that there were "limited" economic benefits from joining CPTPP. While peers accept that there could be unknown upsides down the line to joining the bloc, they warned that its possible "marginal economic benefits" also had downsides. Chiefly, the peers said there was evidence that the terms of joining the agreement would make it harder for the NHS to use cheap generic drugs.

"Throughout the Negotiating Objectives, [the government] makes clear that 'the NHS, its services and the cost of medicine are not on the table'," the report says. "Yet we received evidence of a potential conflict between Article 18.53 and the UK’s current system of market authorisation of generic and biosimilar drugs. We find that two CPTPP provisions on intellectual property are particularly problematic, raising the possibility of significant economic damage to the UK’s patent industry, and higher prices paid by the NHS for generic medicines and biosimilars."

They add: "While the Negotiating Objectives make clear that the Government will ensure that the terms of UK accession are consistent with the UK’s IP interests, and the price the NHS pays for medicines are not on the table, we have not yet been given an indication of how this could be achieved."..."