Medicines New Zealand believes signing of the TPP has potential to boost the New Zealand economy by between $2-4 billion per year, open up new markets for its exporters, and allow New Zealanders improved access to innovative and beneficial goods, including medicines and vaccines. “There appears to be no change in the cost of subsidised medicines to patients as a result of TPP, which is a good outcome for New Zealanders,” says a Medicines NZ spokesperson. “It is disappointing th
at better IP protection for novel biologic medicines through data exclusivity has not been agreed to, but it is positive that at least a baseline protection will now exist across the TPP countries.”
According to Heather Roy, chair of Medicines New Zealand, while the industry has yet to see the full details of the agreement, it is pleased that some aspects of timeliness and transparency in the Pharmac process appear to have been addressed, without any change to the Pharmac structure.
“We have consistently asked for definitive timelines for decision-making on medicines and vaccine funding applications and an appeals process to be put in place,” she said.
“New Zealanders deserve the same level of medical treatment as other first world countries. We hope the Trans-Pacific Partnership will open doors for NZ, making the economy wealthier and the people healthier.”
Despite this positive stance and the salvaging of Pharmac, many are decrying that this will still result in the taxpayer paying out a few million a year in the interests of transparency, as coined by the negotiators.
Of interest is also that copyright terms in TPP countries will now span life plus 70 years compared to the prior life plus 50 years. This means NZ will have to rework its copyright legislation to weaken the public domain, at a cost.
This will pertain to orphaned copyrighted works where the original rights holder can no longer be found and it is anticipated it will cost the NZ consumer approximately $50 million.
Also, TTP policy does not demand forced localisation, which means multinationals do not have to have a local presence and it preserves the free international movement of data which links to online shopping at low cost. This could negatively impact New Zealand taxing digital goods.
Nerine Zoio: nerine@insideretail.co.nz
