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Trade UK
LONDON — The U.K. has agreed to lock in controversial intellectual property protections for pharmaceutical firms as part of a new trade deal with Switzerland.
The agreement, announced on Monday, freezes existing patent protection rules, meaning neither country will be able to shorten exclusivity periods, or bring cheaper generic medicines to market more quickly, without breaching its terms.
The move — which marks the first time the U.K. has explicitly written drug patent rules into a trade deal — has reignited concerns that the protections could increase medicines costs for the NHS, as first reported by POLITICO earlier this year.
