[Ip-health] Bangkok Post: Glaxo axes bid to patent Aids drug

[Sheila.SHETTLE@geneva.msf.org]

Bangkok Post

Thursday August 17, 2006

Glaxo axes bid to patent Aids drug
GPO's cheap generic version likely to stay

Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline has decided not to seek a Thai patent
for its anti-retroviral drug Combid, a source at the Commerce Ministry said
yesterday. The withdrawal of its application followed a protest by an
HIV/Aids group, which said a patent would give the UK-based firm a monopoly
on the drug's sale in Thailand.

It could have forced the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation to stop
producing a generic version, which is a lot cheaper.

Combid, which combines Starvudine and Lamivudine together, is part of a
drug
cocktail required as a complete treatment for HIV/Aids patients.

The source said the firm's lawyer wrote to the Department of Intellectual
Property on Aug 8 withdrawing its application, one day after about 500
people protested outside Glaxo's Bangkok office.

The source understood that Glaxo in June ordered its representatives to
withdraw its applications in Thailand and India.

The company has patents for Combid in the US and Europe, and had been
seeking a patent in Thailand since 1997.

In February, representatives of the Network of People Living with HIV/Aids
met Commerce permanent secretary Karun Kittisataporn and asked the ministry
to reject the Glaxo's application. They argued that Combid was not a new
drug, just a combination of drugs.

The group said Glaxo was trying to exploit the intellectual property law to
make itself a sole distributor of the anti-retroviral drug in Thailand.
This
would allow the company to charge 8,300 baht per 60 tablets, making the
medicine beyond the financial reach of many patients.

The local generic cocktail, GPO-Vir, costs only 1,500 baht and the GPO has
distributed it free of charge to about 50,000 Hiv patients. The drug
consists of Starvudine, Lamivudine, and Navirapine.

The Department of Intellectual Property's director for patents, Seksan
Boonsuwan, said earlier that if Glaxo was granted a patent over Combid, the
GPO would have to stop production. That would have a big impact on people
with HIV/Aids.

Network for People Living with HIV/Aids chairman Wirat Purahong said
yesterday the Glaxo case reflected a flaw in the process of granting
patents
in Thailand. The DIP had seemed to push ahead the company's unjustifiable
request.

''This problem will be an aggravation when the Thailand-US free trade
agreement takes effect,'' Mr Wirat said.

The US wanted Thailand to toughen its law on intellectual property, which
would give protection to key drugs.

Mr Wirat claimed the DIP was also amending the Patent Act to allow people
to
oppose a patent request only after a patent was granted. ''This would allow
the patent granting process to go ahead without careful consideration,'' he
said.


Thailand global role model

The World Bank has urged developing countries with few resources to fight
Aids, to take their lead from Thailand's prevention programmes of recent
years.

Thailand has more than halved the number of new HIV infections in the past
decade and has won praise for its National Access to Anti-Retroviral
Programme for People Living with HIV/Aids. Started last October, it
provides
anti-retroviral drug treatment for nearly 80,000 people.

The bank said the seeds were planted about a decade earlier when Thailand
made Aids prevention a top priority and introduced initiatives such as the
100% Condom Programme, which promoted usage among sex workers. BANGKOK
POST,
REUTERS