Hello and welcome everyone to this online conversation hosted by the European Centre for International Political Economy

on the economic and broader societal value of intellectual property or IP for the EU and its member

states.

My name is Jackie Davis and today I'm very pleased to welcome Dr. Kuhn-Berden to this conversation.

Kuhn is Executive Director for International Affairs at FPA, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical

Industries and Associations, focusing, among other things,

on the EU's trade strategy. As such, he's in a very good position to comment on the recent

ESAB study entitled The Benefits of Intellectual Property Rights in EU Free Trade Agreements.

Hoon, I want to talk to you today about global competitiveness, about strategic resilience

and the central issue addressed by this study, the importance of stronger IP provisions in trade

agreements.

But first, I'd like to go straight to the heart of the matter, and a criticism that you

often hear in any discussion about IP rights, namely the concern

that stronger IP provisions, trade agreements but also elsewhere, would lead to higher costs

and more expensive innovative medicines and thus to less access to treatments. How do you respond

to such criticisms? Thank you, Jackie, and great to less access to treatments. How do you respond to such criticisms?

Thank you, Jackie, and great to be with you here today.

It's an interesting question.

I think the standard thinking is based on economics,

where when you create economic power, that leads to higher prices. And since IP

does that, some consider that a logical consequence. But what is interesting, if you look at that

for the pharmaceutical industry, as the E-Sype study has shown, and as an independent ICUvia report

...