Transpacific partnership: when the cure is worse than the disease

Abstract

Peru is negotiating the Transpacific Partnership Agreement, a commercial treaty that could have deleterious implications for the health systems of the included partners. Transparency and Intellectual Property chapters are the most controversial elements. The first mostly because it opens the possibility for groups of interest to refuse decisions being taken by the sanitary authorities concerning the incorporation of health technologies to the public health systems. The second because it poses restrictions to the entrance of generic medical products, widening the period of data exclusivity and implementing mechanisms of opposition to their registry. Other chapters include strategies to block the states from regulating the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and processed foods. We ought to create surveillance systems to evaluate the impact of the agreement if it is signed, and generate mechanisms that prevent the little resources we already have devoted for health to be deviated to top technology that will not necessarily have a positive impact at a population level.