PHA-Exchange> Thailand backs off threat to break drug patents

[Claudio]

From: "Vern Weitzel" <vern at coombs.anu.edu.au>
http://www.scidev.net/News/index.cfm?fuseaction=readNews&itemid=3402&language=1

Thailand backs off threat to break drug patents

Thailand wants to lower the price of two patented drugs

[BANGKOK] Thailand has delayed breaking the patent of an AIDS drug and a 
heart medicine, and entered
into negotiations with drug firms to lower the price so that more people can 
be treated.

The negotiation panel of the Public Health Ministry yesterday (7 February) 
held its first talks with
US firm Abbott to discuss a price reduction for the AIDS drug Kaletra.

Thawat Suntrajarn, head of the department of disease control, said the firm 
had offered to drop the
price from around US$260 per person per month, to US$170. But the offer 
failed to satisfy the
ministry, and the two sides agreed to negotiate again next month.

Last month the government threatened to break the patent on both Kaletra and 
Plavix, a heart
medicine produced by Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Meyers Squibb. It issued two 
compulsory licenses,
which, under World Trade Organization rules, would have allowed other firms 
to produce the patented
products without the patent owners' consent.

Had the Plavix license gone ahead, it would have marked the first time that 
a developing country had
used compulsory licensing to challenge patents for a 'life-style' disease — 
one that is not for AIDS
or an epidemic.

But the move drew strong opposition from the drug producers. The World 
Health Organization pursuaded
the Thai government to negotiate with drug firms before issuing a compulsory 
license. [Is WHO under pressure?? (Claudio)]

According to Thawat, the government is willing to give drug firms a fair 
chance to deal with the
matter. "It’s also partly because our drug production capacity for this drug 
is not quite up and in
place,” he added.

Kaletra is relied upon by about 20,000 HIV/AIDS patients in Thailand who 
have developed resistance
to the more conventional drugs, placing a severe financial burden on the 
public health service.

Nimit Tienudom, director of the Bangkok-based Aids Access Foundation, said 
compulsory licensing
could prove a crucial tool, empowering the government to bargain for public 
interests.

But Switzerland-based Ellen Hoen, from Medécins sans Frontières, cautioned 
that negotiation may not
be the best way forward.

“History has shown that the best way to bring prices down is by competition 
and generic production,"
Hoen told SciDev.Net.

She cited a similar case in Brazil, which ended up with relatively high drug 
prices being fixed for
a number of years.

The ministry has not yet made clear what steps will be taken for Plavix.