[Ip-health] AP-Generic drugs give HIV patients longer lives in victory for anti-patent activists

[Rachel COHEN]

Generic drugs give HIV patients longer lives in victory for anti-patent
activists

      ALISA TANG, Associated Press Writer


      Monday, July 12, 2004


      (07-12) 04:16 PDT BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) --


      A few years ago, HIV was like a death sentence for tens of thousands
      of Thais who couldn't afford expensive imported drugs. Then came
      hope, in the shape of a one-pill generic drug cocktail.


      When the Thai Government Pharmaceutical Organization started
      producing the three-drug pill in March 2002, monthly treatment for
      one person plummeted to $30 from $500-$750.


      Thailand is one of the few countries making generic anti-AIDS drugs
      after overcoming challenges by European and U.S. pharmaceutical
      giants in a global patent fight that raised the question: What is
      more important -- trade rules or people's lives?


      The 146-nation World Trade Organization decided the latter, agreeing
      last September to allow poor nations to make copies of branded
      medicines to fight killer diseases in times of national health
      crises.


      The use of generic drugs is a key topic at this week's International
      AIDS Conference in Bangkok, whose theme is "Access to All," a
      reference to giving each person infected with HIV access to
      treatment. That is an estimated 42 million people around the globe,
      more than half of them in sub-Saharan Africa.


      According to the World Health Organization, only 8 percent of those
      in need now receive drugs that in rich countries have turned AIDS
      from a death sentence into a chronic disease.


      Until two years ago, members of his group "were dying like leaves
      falling from a tree," said Kamol Upakaew, president and a founder of
      the Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS.


      Thailand woke up to its AIDS epidemic in 1991 when a record 142,819
      infections were reported. In response, the government launched a
      nationwide program to raise awareness and to promote condom use.


      In 1992, the Government Pharmaceutical Organization, started
      researching drugs that keep HIV under control.


      Thailand expanded its free anti-AIDS pill program from 3,000 people
      to 10,000 in 2002 and to 50,000 people this year.


      The program has made a visible difference, said Kamol, who has been
      an AIDS activist since he discovered he was infected with HIV in
      1996.


      "It changed from all our friends dying to: 'It's been two years now,
      and our friends are still here -- we're still alive,"' he said.


      In a population of 63 million people, about 600,000 Thais have HIV
      now, 19,000 of whom were infected last year.


      The patent fight began in 1998, when Thailand was about to produce an
      anti-AIDS pill based on the drug didanosine and Bristol-Myers Squibb
      sent a notice saying it had a patent on the medicine.


      Thailand stopped the project, but it was urged by the Belgium-based
      Doctors Without Borders to fight the American pharmaceutical company.


      So the Government Pharmaceutical Organization took the case to
      Thailand's Central Intellectual Property Court, which ruled the
      Bristol-Myers patent invalid in Thailand.


      The October 2002 ruling also said charities and individuals could
      challenge patents on social grounds, such as public health.
      Previously, only companies with a commercial interest could file
      complaints.


      Thailand now has expanded its treatment program by producing a single
      pill that contains the medicines stavudine, lamivudine and nevirapine
      -- a combination recommended by the WHO. The pill, taken twice daily,
      is easier for patients to keep up with than a regime that requires
      them to take three separate kinds of pill during a day.


      The Government Pharmaceutical Organization, which makes six types of
      anti-AIDS medicines, supplies almost all its production to Thai
      hospitals, which are part of a national network giving free AIDS
      treatment.


      Brazil, another big producer of generic anti-AIDS drugs, donates some
      pills to at least six African countries and plans to expand that to
      14 nations this year. Generic drug companies in India also supply
      Africans with low-cost pills under an arrangement with the Clinton
      Foundation.


      The Thai government plans to offer technological know-how to Africa,
      but for now must take care of its own because each year 40,000 to
      50,000 more Thais need the pills, said Sombat Thanprasertsuk,
      director of the Thailand's AIDS bureau.


      "This is a very big challenge because how can we cope with a high
      number of patients? We are trying very hard to look for even cheaper
      drugs," he said.


      ---
      Rachel M. Cohen
      U.S. Director, Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
      Doctors Without Borders/M=E9decins Sans Fronti=E8res (MSF)
      333 Seventh Avenue, 2nd Floor * New York, NY * 10001-5004 * USA
      Tel: +1-212-655-3762
      Mobile: +1-917-331-9077
      Fax: +1-212-679-7016
      E-mail: rachel.cohen@newyork.msf.org

      http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
      http://www.accessmed-msf.org/