What are CAFTAs provisions on data exclusivity?
Macaya: In CAFTA, there are clauses defining the specific timeframes for protection of registration data, for both drugs and pesticides. Data protection is provided for five years for drugs; and 10 years for pesticides, with absolutely no justification for that difference. We asked our negotiators to request an answer from USTR [the U.S. Trade Representative] on why there should be such a difference. It took the USTR six months to come up with an answer. And the answer they came up with is: agrichemicals require tests in plants, animals, the environment, waterways, etc. whereas drugs only require tests in patients — and therefore agrichemicals are more expensive to develop and merit greater protection periods. The flaw with the argument is that intellectual property is supposed to be protecting innovation, not investments. Aside from that, the statement is false. There are two leading industry cited studies on the cost of generating safety and efficacy data, one commissioned by CropLi
