US must find drugs compromise in trade talks, Japan says
ATLANTA—Japan called on the United States on Saturday to find a way to break a deadlock over the protection for nextgeneration medicines as talks on a sweeping trade pact were extended for another 24 hours.
Negotiators were up all night trying to broker a deal on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which would create a free trade zone covering 40 percent of the world economy.
A push by the United States to set a longer period of exclusivity for drug makers like Genentech, which developed Avastin cancertreatment has run into opposition from other TPP economies and is holding up a broader deal.
Japanese Economy Minister Akira Amari said he had agreed to a US request to stay on in the southern city of Atlanta for another 24 hours, but said the United States had to find a way forward on biological drugs.
“I said there were two conditions for us to accept that proposal: First, this would be the last chance, in other words there had to be certainty of getting a deal on pharmaceuticals; second, because of the schedule, Japan could not accept any further extension,” Amari told reporters.
The United States allows pharmaceutical companies an exclusive period of 12 years to use clinical data behind the approval for a new biological drug.
The Obama administration had previously proposed lowering that threshold to seven years, but had pushed a proposal for an eight-year minimum in the TPP talks in Atlanta.
New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser said the impasse was holding up a deal on trade in dairy products, New Zealand’s main interest, and repeated that the country would not be pushed out of the pact. “We are not shooting for the stars,” he said.
Groser warned that failing to seal a deal would have longterm strategic implications for the United States and all its trading partners.
“You can see the summit within reach and it’s just a question as to whether or not you’ve got just enough political energy to reach out and do the last little bit,” he said.