Patently obvious: a public health analysis of pharmaceutical industry statements on the Trans-Pacific Partnership international trade agreement

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) is a regional trade agreement being negotiated by 12 countries, including New Zealand and the United States of America (USA). The patent-holding pharmaceutical industry (the Industry) has lobbied for enhanced intellectual property protections and rules affecting pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement in the TPPA. These provisions would likely reduce access to affordable medicines. This paper reports on a study exploring how the Industry has used language to frame the TPPA in an effort to influence opinion and exert leverage. We undertook a thematic analysis of the language used in publicly available statements about the TPPA from the Industry’s national associations in the USA and New Zealand. Data included press releases, submissions and other statements dated 2008–2013. The Industry framed the TPPA as contributing to the public good. The TPPA was portrayed as redressing inequitable pharmaceutical policies, which limit people’s access to new medicines. Further, the TPPA was constructed as the route to economic growth for the USA and ultimately for all TPPA countries, through increased intellectual property protection for the pharmaceutical industry. This framing obscured tensions between Industry interests and public health goals. The Industry remained silent on the issue of affordability, a key dimension of equitable pharmaceutical access. The use of rhetoric, such as ‘win-win outcomes’ (for TPPA countries and the Industry), hid the vested economic interests of the Industry in the TPPA. Understanding the Industry’s framing of issues can assist public health advocates in challenging prevailing discourses and exposing vested interests.