Opinion: Trade agreement drug monopoly is obsolete given faster, better drug discovery

For decades, the brand-name drug industry has relentlessly promoted the message that any reduction in its government-protected monopolies would have detrimental effects on innovation. Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have taken that message to heart, largely leaving pharmaceutical monopolies alone as drug prices have skyrocketed.

But even as the innovation narrative is showing cracks in its foundation, and as House Democrats take aim at removing a provision in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that gives drug companies 10 years of guaranteed market protection, the pharma industry continues to flog its stale innovation narrative.

The signed but not yet ratified trade agreement covers virtually every aspect