AIDS Sufferers Seen Hurt In Pacific Trade Pact Limits

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-08/aids-sufferers-seen-hurt-in-pacific-trade-pact-limits.html

Edward Low, an AIDS activist in Malaysia who is HIV-positive, says treatments to fight the disease in his country cost about $90 a month, down from $1,000 a decade ago before generic drugs became widely available.

Now he’s worried that a trade deal being negotiated by nine Pacific-region nations including the U.S. may curtail access to those cheap drugs in favor of patented pharmaceuticals, raising costs to survive HIV/AIDS in developing nations.

“This agreement is good for the rich countries,” Low, 45, said during an interview in Washington. “It’s not good for the poor countries.”

Protecting the patents of drug makers including Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY) and GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) as part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership has drawn criticism from groups such as Doctors Without Borders and Public Citizen. The proposed accord has also spurred calls from U.S. lawmakers for greater transparency about the negotiations, while technology companies including Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Symantec Corp. (SYMC) are urging fewer restrictions on cross-border data flows.