OP to Pres. Obama by a Malaysian member of Parliment

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A letter to Barack Obama – Jeyakumar Devaraj

Dear President Obama,

A part of me wants to say “Welcome to Malaysia” as we Malaysians are generally a hospitable people, and many of us were thrilled when you became the 44th President of the United States. Your ability to communicate, your oratory skills - you are truly an admirable individual!

But one of the things that hold me back from warmly welcoming you to Malaysia is the fact that one of the important items on your agenda is to get our government to agree to the TPPA – the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement. You must know Mr President,that the TPPA will increase the prices of medicines for us, making it much more expensive for patients with HIV to get second line treatment which they will require once their viruses mutate and become impervious to the effects of the standard therapy.

Your pharmaceutical firms have put in clauses such as “data exclusivity” which will impede the importing of generic drugs even after the completion of the patent period by “criminalising” the use of data that was generated by the innovating company. Many patients with cancer will also have difficulty accessing the most effective drugs for their conditions once Malaysia signs on to the TPPA.

More at http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/a-letter-to-barack-obama