Patents for medicine cannot be extended under the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement just because there is a new use for the drug, BN Backbenchers Club chairperson Shahrir Samad insists.

"They (critics) claim that you can add 20 years (to a patent) if you find a new use for (the medicine).

"The example they cite is Viagra, which is used to treat erectile dysfunction, but can also treat pulmonary hypertension.

"This is not true… you can't simply, after 20 years, add another 20 years (to the patent). That's the Malaysian system," Shahrir said.

The Johor Baru MP was responding to TPPA critics who said a patent extension clause under the TPPA would allow pharmaceutical companies to pass off minor variations of an existing medicine as a novel product, hence garnering an extension on their patents.

This phenomenon is known as 'evergreening' . It supposedly allows the companies to hold a monopoly for longer than the original 20-year patent period, and hence keeping out competition from generic drug manufacturers and keeping their prices high.

Klang MP Charles Santiago said this had been completely ignored by the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (Isis) in its government- commissioned analysis of the TPPA.

Shahrir was speaking at a TPPA briefing held at Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Razali Ibrahim's private office in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur, last night.

Strategies to educate the public

About 20 people attended the briefing, half of whom were youths.

Razali said besides explaining about the TPPA, the group would also be discussing strategies on how to educate the public on the free trade agreement.

The media was not allowed to sit in on the strategy brainstorming session.

The TPPA is a multinational free trade agreement in which the United States is the main proponent.

Apart from Malaysia, the other countries involved in its secretive negotiations included Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Mexico and Canada.

Parliament will debate whether to sign the pact or not at a special two-day Dewan Rakyat session on Jan 26 and 27.

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