Inside U.S. Trade reports that USTR has begun an “internal review of the controversial pharmaceutical patent proposal that U.S. trade officials tabled” earlier in the TPP negotiations. However, USTR has also signaled new text will not be ready by the next round of negotiations in Singapore in March. The initial U.S. proposal centered around an “access window,” granting TRIPS plus protection to firms that introduced their products within a certain period of time. It was opposed by all of the other negotiators, and the original text was withdrawn.
(See civil society comments on the U.S.’s original proposal here).
In the past Members of Congress have asked the Obama Administration to that text on IPRs uphold the May 10th agreement (a 2007 compromise between the Bush Administration and Congressional Democrats). This would make linkage and patent extensions optional for TPP members, and would limit the duration of data exclusivity.
