Henry Shue, Oxford Professor of Politics and International Relations and member of the ASAP Advisory Board, contacted the ASAP team this week with a message for members: help protect access to affordable generic medicines in the Pacific Rim.

He says he hopes many ASAP members will participate in a campaign, initiated by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), pressuring the United States and other countries to ensure the availability of generic medicines in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal currently being negotiated.

According to MSF, leaked reports from the trade negotiations show that the US has proposed strict intellectual property rules that would undermine access to generic medicines, which are essential to MSF\’s work and play a major role in healthcare systems across developing countries.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will cover at least half a billion people in 11 Pacific Rim nations — Vietnam, Peru, Mexico, Malaysia, Chile, New Zealand, Brunei Darussalam, United States, Singapore, Canada, and Australia — and may be extended to include ten additional countries. TPP negotiations began in 2010 and are scheduled to conclude in October 2013.

With MSF, Shue is calling on ASAP members to contact the United States Congress and other governments negotiating the TPP and demand that access to generic medicines be protected in the trade deal.

Find more information and join MSF\’s campaign here.