A US Senator claims Australia wants to steal American medicine patents under provisions in a 12-nation trade deal.
Pro-trader Orrin Hatch, a US Senate Finance Committee chairman, wants changes to be made to the Trans-Pacific Partnership including a 12-year data exclusivity, instead of Australia's demand for five years.
"We cannot agree to something that would just destroy the biologics industry. In essence what the Australians are saying is 'Let us steal your patents,'" he told the ABC.
Senator Hatch accused Australia of wanting biologics to come off patent as quickly as possible. "But there still has to be enough patent term to be able to recoup the approximately $2 billion and 15 years of effort that you have in biologics, and there's no way you can do that in five years," he said.
Australia's Trade Minister Steve Ciobo met Senator Hatch in Washington, describing their discussions as "constructive".
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
"Senator Hatch is obviously a very important player in terms of what will happen in respect to the TPP in terms of the United States," he told ABC radio.
But Australia would not be budging on its five-year patent timeframe.
"There's a hard stop in terms of our commitment - that is the coalition's commitment to Medicare and to the health system more generally," he said.
It was getting "close to midnight" for the US Congress to consider the trade deal, but conversations would continue.
Mr Ciobo insisted the TPP was certainly "not dead", despite presidential hopefuls Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both opposing it.
