CPhI Worldwide recently released a report which includes insights on how the recently-concluded Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which is still being negotiated, will affect pharmaceutical companies.

“Academia, civil society, media, and political commentators have all raised concerns about the impact of the TPP on public health and the TTIP on the inability of the governments to regulate the big corporations,” said the report, which was authored by Dilip Shah, CEO of Vision Consulting Group.

U.S. negotiators for the TPP sought regulatory harmonization to fast-track drug registration and limitations on generic competition, said Shah in the CPhI report. The Generic Pharmaceutical Association and its Biosimilars Council expressed optimism, however, that “the TPP brings us closer to achieving worldwide patient access to affordable medicines by embracing competition from safe, effective biosimilar therapies. Trade provisions that facilitate both the development of innovative, life-saving medicines and the availability of affordable generic medicines are a win for patients.”

The TTIP, in addition to removing tariff barriers to improve trade flow, also aims to remove non-tariff barriers. Possible provisions include changes in intellectual property regulations, limits on pricing and reimbursement policies, and limits on transparency of clinical trials.

“The most likely outcome of this trade deal is promotion of interests of the brand-name industry by delaying generic competition,” concluded Shah.

Shah also predicted that generic drug companies will be negatively affected by the provisions of the TTIP and that the brand-name industry will suffer backlash for a rise in medicine prices.