[Ip-health] Thai AIDS groups oppose change in Thai patent law

[James Love]

http://nationmultimedia.com/2006/12/19/national/national_30021915.php
19 December 2006

DRUG PATENT ACT
Aids groups upset by amendments

HIV/Aids activists claim patent-law changes would allow drugs 'trickery'

Draft amendments to the Drug Patent Act will do more harm than good,
HIV/Aids groups say. They want changes scrapped or a "transparent
revision".

An amendment proposed by the Department of Intellectual Property will
bar objections to drug patents for six months following their award.

The Drug Patent Act 1979 allows objections at any time, according
Thai Network of People Living with HIV/Aids president Virat Phurahong.

He asserted the right to challenge patents was important, especially
in cases of "trick patenting".

Virat said British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline had been forced to
withdraw a patent application in Thailand for the HIV anti-retroviral
therapy Combid after a challenge by local and international HIV/Aids
groups.

They claimed the drug was not new because it was simply a combination
of existing anti-retrovirals and was not an invention.

If a patent had been granted the price of Combid would have been five
times higher than a generic version produced by the Government
Pharmaceutical Organisation, Virat said, adding it would have been
forced to stop production.

Virat said another problem with the amendment was that it permitted
patent applications before new drugs had been fully developed.

"If you think a certain substance has the potential to become a drug,
you can seek a patent for it," he said. "This would prevent others
from conducting research into that same substance and developing
their own drug from it."

Virat said the planned changes would allow drug owners to amend
patents "at least once".

"Tricky" drug companies could use this to extend patents for drugs
indefinitely.

"This is not transparent," he alleged.

The department's amendment has been denied Cabinet approval once, but
Virat said the depart-

ment planned to resubmit it with-out addressing the network's concerns.

Arthit Khwankhom

The Nation