[Ip-health] WSJ: ACTIVISTS TELL administration to keep out of Thailand AIDS-drug dispute.

[James Packard Love]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2006/12/29/ethics-push/

ACTIVISTS TELL administration to keep out of Thailand AIDS-drug dispute.

At stake: Bangkok=E2=80=99s plan to issue license to make cheaper generic
version of a Merck AIDS drug. Oxfam America, Global Aids Alliance and
dozens of others complain after U.S. trade official urged Thai
authorities to talk to Merck. The U.S. =E2=80=9Cshould not be in the busine=
ss of
micromanaging=E2=80=9D Thailand=E2=80=99s dealings with drug companies, the=
y say in
letter to Secretary of State Rice and Trade Rep. Schwab.

USTR says it doesn=E2=80=99t question the right to issue the license, but w=
ants
Thailand, where more than one in 100 adults are infected with HIV, to
=E2=80=9Cengage in a dialogue=E2=80=9D with all stakeholders.

Merck says it shares Bangkok=E2=80=99s desire to make =E2=80=9Cessential me=
dicines as
accessible as possible.=E2=80=9D

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