A Pacific trade deal gives Peru 10 years grace before it has to implement new legislation giving five years of data exclusivity to the makers of next-generation biologic drugs, Peruvian Trade and Tourism Minister Magali Silva said. Peru was among 12 countries which agreed a new regional trade pact on Monday, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which will set minimum standards for protection of innovative new medicines, governing how quickly low-cost alternatives can come onto the market. "They have given us a transition period of 10 years, so in 13 years we will have done legislation that protects data from (clinical) trials for biologic drugs for five years," Silva told local broadcaster RPP, in an interview posted on the trade ministry's website. The deal means companies can keep data used to develop biologic drugs under wraps for at least five years. Coupled with a buffer period, companies will have a monopoly for about eight years, short of the 12 years the United States had originally pushed for.