[ Daily News| September 08, 2016 | Inside US Trade]
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) this week said commitments from Trans-Pacific Partnership countries on his demand for 12 years of market exclusivity for biologic drugs would not have to be framed in a contract or a side agreement – but rather as a “methodology” he believes “honorable” countries will follow.
“We have to come up with a methodology where they agree to 12 years,” Hatch told Inside U.S. Trade on Sept. 7. “That doesn’t have to be a contract; it doesn’t have to be an agreement; there are a number of ways they can do that. And honorable countries will live up to it.”
Hatch said his “specific demand” can be achieved by “finding a way of having the countries agree to change that terminology in the TPP to 12 years, or come up with something that would be acceptable.”
