22 September 2016 - As the multilateral trade Trans-Pacific Partnership continues its road to ratification, the intellectual property chapter remains the most debated and topical component.

Writing in the Herald Sun, Glenn Cross from AusBiotech notes what the TPP will do to impact the cost of medicines, the value for the development of medicines and the commercialisation of our medical research, is obscured.

As in many first world countries, the development of medicines in Australia is a public-private compact.

Typically, the research, publicly funded in our world-class universities or medical research institutes, should it show promise as a therapeutic, enters a translation process that relies on the attraction of private funding — typically venture capital.

IP protection is the fundamental source of value that is used by companies to attract the substantial, multimillion-dollar investment required over a decade, or more, to bring treatments, cures, tests and devices to Australian patients.

Read Herald Sun article