An overwhelming majority of the European Parliament surprisingly to us voted against the ratification of the anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA). This international copyright agreement, which was negotiated by the E.U., its member states, as well as other countries including the U.S. and Canada, aimed to standardize laws that would protect manufacturers including drug makers from intellectual property disputes, while also preventing product pirating. Had it passed, ACTA would have heightened enforcement regulations against the counterfeit trade of medicines and other goods. It would have also provided an advantage for patented medicines, while making access to unlicensed generic medicines more difficult.
Though the failure of this act may seem like a positive step toward increasing access to affordable generic drugs, in the long run, it will negatively impact drug development. Without adequate trade protections, drug companies would no longer have the incentives to invest in R&D, thus stalling innovation and leaving us with the same pharmacopeia for years to come.
In addition, counterfeit drugs pose a huge threat to public health, as they are highly likely to be either completely lacking in effective ingredients or, worse still, reduced in strength as compared with their regulated counterparts. Without more stringent detection and elimination of counterfeit drug trades through ACTA, it is likely that access to these medications will increase. Yet groups such as Doctors Without Borders, which campaigned for the E.U. vote against the act, greatly undervalue the harmful consequences of counterfeit drugs, such as an increase in drug-resistant diseases. And with generics flooding the market, pharmaceutical companies will not have the resources to produce new drugs, further exacerbating the problem of drug resistance.
As ACSH s Dr. Ross points out, the failure of the E.U. to ratify ACTA is a major detriment to pharmaceutical innovation and will wind up enhancing the spread of resistant infections such as malaria.
