Brussels, 28 November 2017 Dear Commissioner for Trade Ms. Cecilia Malmström,

With the present letter the undersigned Members of the would like to express their concern that elements of the current EU-Mercosur trade negotiations could negatively affect access to affordable medicines in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Furthermore, exporting current EU norms to 3rd countries will lock in these disputed additional IP protections for European populations.

The EU may conclude its trade negotiations with Mercosur in the round taking place end of November, 2017 and the first week of December, 2017. In this negotiation with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay the EU is demanding the most stringent intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection. We are concerned that overreaching IPR regulations could restrict and delay competition from generic medicines, thereby sustaining high medicines prices as the prices of generics are, on average, a third of branded medicines.

EU Member States have in its recent Council Conclusions on Health 1 called for investigation into the effects of additional IP protection (such supplementary patent certificates, extended data exclusivity and additional market exclusivity) on affordability and sustainability of health systems in the EU. Nevertheless, the EU continues to export these questionable norms in its trade negotiations with countries where there are less means to ensure universal access to medicines.

Hence the actions by DG Trade are a highly questionable, not only from a policy coherence perspective in line with the EUs commitments with the UN´s Sustainable Development Goals (in particular SDG 3.B).

We cannot ignore the negative effects of much more stringent Intellectual Property rights provisions on affordable health in the Mercosur countries. Furthermore, entering into agreements with third parties on these provisions, the EU is effectively locking in these provisions, ignoring the concerns expressed by the EU´s own Member States, and effectively undermining potential efforts by its Member States to revise the pharmaceutical system in order to ensure affordable access for their populations and to guarantee the sustainability of our health systems.2

1 Council conclusions on strengthening the balance in the pharmaceutical systems in the EU and its Member States. http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2016/06/17/epsco- conclusions-balance-pharmaceutical-system/# 2 http://ec.europa.eu/growth/content/study-economic-impact-supplementary-protection-certificates- pharmaceutical-incentives-and-0_en

We request that you take these concerns into account in the present EU-Mercosur trade negotiations and refrain from demanding provisions on IPR and IPR enforcement3 that lead to extended exclusivity periods for pharmaceuticals, such as the highly problematic and contentious control of IP protected goods in transit.

Please receive our kindest regards,

MEP Lola Sánchez Caldentey (GUE/NGL) MEP Xabier Benito Ziluaga (GUE/NGL)

MEP Karoline Graswander-Hainz (S&D) MEP (EFDD)

MEP Pascal Durand (Greens/EFA) MEP (Greens/EFA)

MEP Stelios Kouloglou (GUE/NGL) MEP Gabriele Zimmer (GUE/NGL)

MEP Barbara Spinelli (GUE/NGL) MEP (EPP)

MEP Patrick Le Hyaric (GUE/NGL) MEP Javier Couso Permuy (GUE/NGL)

MEP Anne-Marie Mineur (GUE/NGL) MEP Dennis De Jong (GUE/NGL)

MEP Jude Kirton-Darling (S&D) MEP Tania González Peñas (GUE/NGL)

MEP Malin Björk (GUE/NGL) MEP Marisa Matias (GUE/NGL)

MEP Miguel Urbán Crespo (GUE/NGL) MEP (EFDD)

MEP Eva Joly (Greens/EFA) MEP Helmut Scholz (GUE/NGL)

MEP Nessa Childers (S&D) MEP Eleonora Forenza (GUE/NGL)

MEP Estefanía Torres Martínez (GUE/NGL) MEP Agnes Jongerius (S&D)

MEP Dietmar Köster (S&D) MEP Julie Ward (S&D)

3 The highly problematic and contentious control of IP protected goods in transit