Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Janelle Waack provided comment for a Modern Healthcare article outlining the details of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, a trade agreement between the U.S. and 11 countries. As part of the agreement, countries will extend data exclusivity for biologic medicines for five to eight years instead of the 12 years that the United States and the pharmaceutical industry recommended. The trade agreement next goes to the U.S. Congress, who will need to vote whether to accept the deal. As Janelle points out in the article, Congress will need to “carefully consider the impact on the pharmaceutical industry and smaller companies that are doing the ground level research, saying the agreement raises questions about whether they would continue ‘to pursue these lines of research in view of what could be a more limited period of exclusivity.'”
The full article, “Trade Deal Disappoints Drugmakers, Consumer Groups,” was published by Modern Healthcare on October 5, 2015 and is available online.