How Obama's trade deal could cripple the fight against AIDS

AIDS research group amfAR has taken a stand against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation trade deal for which President Obama hopes to gain "fast-track" authority.

According to a new amfAR report, the TPP's provisions about pharmaceutical companies could increase the cost of drugs in the developing world. The report claims that the trade deal's provisions would hinder AIDS treatment, because it could delay the introduction of generic, lower-cost treatments.

The report suggests the TPP could expand intellectual property protections and expand what qualifies for patents, which "would tilt the playing field in favor of drug companies," Vox explains. The provisions could delay the availability of generic medicines, because during the large companies' patent monopolies over the medicines, other companies couldn't create generic versions.

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Vox notes that the TPP could also enforce "data exclusivity," requiring generic producers to conduct their own clinical trials, rather than using data from the large companies' original tests. Conducting additional trials would cost generic producers time and resources, which could also delay generics' introduction into the market.

"The global community would never have achieved its successes in addressing the HIV epidemic if the terms of the proposed TPP were the international standard in 2001," amfAR said in the report, adding that the TPP's provisions "show a disregard for public health."