No argument against the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement packs more emotional punch than the claim that the deal would be bad for people’s health — and even result in avoidable deaths — both in the United States and in the 11 other signatory nations. The argument, repeated most recently in a letter to Congress from the U.S. branches of Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam America and about 50 other organizations , is that the TPP would unduly extend U.S. patent and intellectual property protections for the pharmaceutical industry, thus driving up prices for lifesaving medicines. In fact, the letter argues, the “TPP would do more to undermine access to affordable medicines than any previous U.S. trade agreement.”
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