The government has been urged to come clean on whether it has agreed to pricier medicines after a section of the latest Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) on the matter was leaked online.

NGO Bantah TPPA said this is in relation to the provisions concerning intellectual property rights for medicines in the agreement.

Bantah TPPA spokesperson Azlan Awang said the latest agreement exposed by whistleblower site WikiLeaks showed that compulsory licences for medicines appear to have been dropped.

He warned that if this were true, prices of medicines would increase as the patents on them will last for a longer period of time.

"The proposal for compulsory licensing was in the agreement when it was revealed on Wikileaks on Aug 30 last year.

"But in the latest leak last week, it has been removed. That worries us," Azlan ( right ) told a press conference at the Malay Economic Action Council (Mtem) headquarters this afternoon.

In medicine patent, a compulsory licence allows the government to produce generic medicines from a patented product at cheaper prices for domestic use.

Without it, the patent holder will have exclusive rights to produce its medicines, therefore having the leverage to charge more.

"In our eagerness to sign the agreement, it seems Malaysia has even agreed to this," Azlan said.

International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed told Parliament June last year that the government will not sign the TPPA if it means higher prices of medicines.

In April this year, he reiterated that Putrajaya will be firm on provisions concerning intellectual property rights of medicines in the agreement.