Professor Donald W. Light, a fellow of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvannia, says Big Pharma has declared war on the price of patented drugs in Europe, Australia and other affluent countries. It hopes to counter efforts within the U.S. to lower domestic prices, aiming instead to raise prices everywhere to U.S. levels. The goals pursued in the Australian and other Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) are to:

• Restructure internal markets to raise prices on patented drugs,
• Extend patent protection and data exclusivity to delay generic competition
• Block cheap exports to the U.S.

A feature in this campaign is doublespeak. “Competitive liberalization” means competitive restrictions, or liberalisation from competition. “Free trade” means restricted trade, or the ability to trade freely at prices set by drug companies. “Free markets” for patented drugs means free from normal competition so that the longer competition is delayed, the “freer” the market is said to be. “Openness” means opening other countries’ price setting processes to drug company influence. “Reimportation” refers to the global free trade in drugs, but makes it sound like a bizarre unnatural act.