To find tomorrow’s cures pass trade deal today
Congress will soon consider the new North American trade deal, dubbed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. When U.S. government officials negotiated the deal, they asked their Mexican and Canadian counterparts to lift their nations’ intellectual property standards for certain advanced drugs.
But now, some U.S. lawmakers are taking issue with this provision, claiming it will adversely impact U.S. drug prices. They’re wrong. USMCA’s intellectual property rules will catalyze further investment in medi- cal research with- out affecting prices. If Congress wants to help patients here and abroad, they’ll pass the trade deal assigned by the three countries last fall.
The United States leads the world in medical innovation. American labs are responsible for more than half of all drugs currently being developed worldwide. This includes more than 1,000 cancer treatments, 85 drugs to fight Alzheimer’s disease, and another 550 that combat rare diseases.
There’s a reason America leads in innovation. Our nation’s robust intellectual property protections encourage researchers to develop their products here. Thanks to our patent protections, firms pour billions of dollars into research and development projects in America each year — $90 billion in 2016 alone.
In particular, U.S. patent law has encouraged the development of biologics — complex drugs made using living organisms. Biologics have proven successful in treating a number of conditions, including multiple sclerosis and cancer. Since 2004, the FDA has approved five biologics to treat colon cancer. Treatment options are one key to advancing patient health. Good public
policies drives private industry investment and competition.
The United States offers 12 years of “regulatory data protection” for biologics. For the duration of that window, rival companies can’t manufacturer copycat versions of these drugs, called biosimilars. That gives innovators a chance to recoup their sky-high investment costs.
Many other countries recognize the value of strong intellectual property protections. The entire European Union, for example, provides 10 years of regulatory data protection for biologics. Existing Canadian law only provides eight years. Mexico doesn’t offer anything. USMCA would require both countries to offer at least 10 years of protection, bringing them closer to the U.S. standard.
That’s great news for patients. With scientific discoveries protected at home and abroad, more investors would be spurred to pour money into the next generation of biologics. Unfortunately, a handful of lawmakers want to eliminate USMCA’s section on biologics. This doesn’t make sense. There’s no evidence to suggest that reducing intellectual property protections would cut costs. In fact, a report from the Geneva Network found that USMCA would have zero effect on drug prices and total drug spending within overall health care systems.
The Geneva Network report examined the effects of increasing regulatory data protection in Canada and Japan. More than a decade ago, both nations extended an eight-year window to all medicines, not just biologics. The report concludes that increasing the protection had no impact on drug spending in Japan or Canada. In fact, drug spending declined as a percentage of both countries’ health spending after they increased regulatory data protection.
Extending regulatory data protections wouldn’t hurt patients — but reducing them certainly would. After all, drug development is a risky business. It takes billions of dollars — and up to 15 years of dedicated research — to take a drug from the lab to patients. And most drug research fails long before they hit shelves. But researchers continue to pursue these projects in the hopes that a single successful drug will offset the cost of previous failures. Reducing these protections kills the incentive for innovation, and leaves patients worse off.
Cancer patients especially benefit from robust drug development. Since 1990, cancer death rates have plummeted by 26%, thanks in a large part to the availability of new drugs. But despite this progress, there’s still more work to be done.
Colorectal cancer effects around one in 23 people. More than 145,000 Americans are expected to be diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2019 alone. And each year, colorectal cancer claims the lives of more than 51,000 patients in the United States. For these patients, drug development is a matter of life and death. By safeguarding intellectual property, USMCA gives drug development a much-needed boost, and gives patients hope for the future. Hopefully U.S. lawmakers realize this before it’s too late.