The Drug Tradeoffs in TPP Deal

After eight years of challenging negotiations, twelve Pacific Rim nations* comprising 40 percent of the world’s economy, including the United States, Canada, Mexico and Japan, agreed to a large package of trade standards and regulatory ambitions.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) now faces an approval battle on Capitol Hill that will find objections voiced over nearly every major point in the pact. The agreement’s pharmaceutical and biotechnology provisions, which nearly derailed the TPP negotiations several times, have so far aroused some of the strongest reactions.