<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1;"><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbrinkley/2015/07/07/tpp-still-has-a-long-way-to-go/" style="color: purple;" class="">http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbrinkley/2015/07/07/tpp-still-has-a-long-way-to-go/</a><o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 1.25in 13.5pt 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="font-size: 31.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">TPP Still Has a Long Way To Go<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">Forbes<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">By John Brinkley<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">July 7, 2015<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">Congress’s having given President Obama fast-track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership doesn’t assure that the agreement will enjoy smooth sailing the rest of the way. There are still any number of rocks in the water that could sink it.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; widows: 1;" class=""><strong class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">Negotiations</span></strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; widows: 1;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">Negotiations over the TPP among and between the 12 parties to it are not as close to completion as Obama and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman would like you to believe. There are enough unresolved issues in the text to keep the negotiators at the table for a long time.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; widows: 1;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">To be fair, the 11 other TPP parties know they need to finish it and get it to the U.S. Congress for a vote by the end of the year. If it drags into the 2016 election year, all bets are off. That fact, along with Congress having given Obama fast-track authority, may soften their negotiating positions on some issues.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; widows: 1;" class=""><strong class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">Whatever Pharma Wants, Pharma Gets</span></strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; widows: 1;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">The governments of several TPP countries are incensed at the U.S. government’s insistence on protecting American drug patents against encroachment by generics. They say the Obama administration is putting the profits of the American pharmaceutical industry ahead of the protection of public health – a claim that’s hard to refute.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; widows: 1;" class=""><em class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">Politico</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><i class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class=""> </span></i></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">reported last week that a leaked copy of the TPP’s intellectual property chapter included a provision restricting foreign governments’ rights to approve generic drugs that copy American brands. According to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em class=""><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">Politico</span></em>, the provision would allow American pharmaceutical companies to claim patent infringement at the drop of a hat.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; widows: 1;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">U.S. patent law allows for copies of all manner of patented consumer products – watches, musical instruments, computer software and many others – under certain circumstances, with one exception: prescription drugs. Now, the Obama administration is trying to force that regime on the 11 other TPP countries, said Ralph Neas, president of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">This would make it hard for poorer TPP countries to get affordable medicines to citizens who need them. They would constantly be under threat by the Big Pharma behemoth.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; widows: 1;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">It gets worse. The Affordable Care Act allows the development of so-called biosimilars, which mimic the effects of biologic drugs, but are much less expensive. The FDA approved the first biosimilar for use in the United States in March. Biosimilars are not subject to patent linkage in the United States, but they will be subject to patent linkage in the TPP if Big Pharma get its way, Neas said.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; widows: 1;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">The pharmaceutical industry says rigid enforcement of its patents is necessary to recoup the high cost of developing new drugs and getting them through the government-approval process. But they spend more on 60-second TV commercials and lavishing doctors with money and largesse than on R&D.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; widows: 1;" class=""><strong class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">Congressional and Presidential Politics</span></strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; widows: 1;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">No president has had as much difficulty getting a fast-track bill passed by Congress than Obama had with the one he just signed.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; widows: 1;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">Trade has traditionally been a bipartisan issue, but that’s changing. A lot of congressional Democrats who support free trade foresee no political benefit to voting for another free trade agreement. What they foresee instead are election-year attack ads and primary challenges.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; widows: 1;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">If the TPP negotiations drag on so long that the agreement doesn’t get to Capitol Hill until 2016, even more Democrats will abandon Obama. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., led a Democratic rear-guard action to reject the fast-track bill the first time it came up for a vote. So, she is not a taken-for-granted yes vote on the TPP.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15pt; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; widows: 1;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">Hillary Clinton supported Pelosi and the other Democratic rebels. With Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., running against her for the Democratic presidential nomination, Clinton has to shore up her defenses on her left flank. She seems to be putting off having to state an unequivocal position on the TPP for as long as she can. But it’s hard to imagine that she will endorse it, even though she spoke in favor of it when she was secretary of state and voted for other free trade agreements when she was a senator.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 15pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; background-color: white;" class="">That’s politics, folks. You do what you have to do to win. There won’t be many pro-trade Democrats voting in the 2016 primaries.</span><span style="font-size: 8pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div class=""><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; background-color: white;" class=""><br class=""></span></div></div></body></html>