Malaria, which has provided antiretroviral therapy to more than six-million people living with HIV in developing countries.
In addition, Canada provides international assistance to five of the 12 TPP-negotiating countries, amounting to more than $83 million in 2012 and 2013. Two countries involved in the TPP negotiations, Vietnam and Peru, are also on Canada's "Development Countries of Focus" list, due to an even greater need for development assistance. If harmful provisions in the TPP are accepted, driving up the cost of medicines and vaccines, the impact of this use of Canadian taxpayers' money could be seriously diminished.
Access to affordable medicines could also become a major concern in Canada. Drug expenditures in this country have been the fastest growing sector of health spending in the last 25 years. Since the mid-1980s, prescription drug spending has more than doubled, costing $27.7 billion in 2012. If Canada does not strongly reject the new protections proposed in the TPP, these expenditures could cost our health-care systems, and all Canadians, billions more per year.