PETALING JAYA: The 18th round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agree-ment (TPP) negotiations in Kota Kinabalu concluded on Thursday but the issue of pharmaceuticals remains up in the air.
While US biggest lobby group for drug companies PhRMA argued that strong intellectual property protections would encourage investments and developments in new pharmaceutical areas, Malaysian Pharma-ceutical Society (MPS) president Datuk Nancy Ho is taking an opposing view, claiming that possible patent extension might further impede the growth of the local pharmaceutical industry, specifically the generic pharmaceutical industry.