[Ip-health] Thai-USFTA: US requests patent term extensions, DE and restrictions on CL grounds

[Sanya Reid Smith]

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In the IP text the US tabled yesterday, it has requested patent term
extensions for delays in granting patents, 5 years of DE and restrictions on
CL grounds according to a Thai newspaper, The Nation.

See article below.



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The Nation, Bangkok

THAI-US FTA TALKS: Stumbling block

January 12, 2006

Pennapa Hongthong, Jeerawat na Thalang

Thai negotiators say US demands on drug patents are an unacceptable
extension of WTO position. The Thai-US free-trade talks hit a snag yesterday
after the head Thai negotiator for intellectual-property rights declared
demands by the US for Thailand to tighten up drug patenting as
"unacceptable".

As Bangkok toughened its stance, uncertainties appeared to grow over the
Thai government's decision to leave Parliament out of the whole process -
and whether this breaches the Constitution.

The US negotiating team yesterday described the issue as an internal affair,
but added that America face no such problem because its negotiations with
Thailand have been "transparent" with Congress playing its role.

Kanisson Navanukhro, chief of Thailand's Department of Intellectual Property
Rights, who led Thai negotiators on the issue, said yesterday after seeing
the US demands on drug patenting issues for the first time that the US
conditions put Thailand and Thai drug users in a disadvantaged position .

"We cannot accept the US demands because their conditions were created only
to benefit a developed country which has an advanced pharmaceutical
industry," he said. "But Thailand will have nothing to gain because our
capacity in producing drugs is very poor."

The negotiation text put forward by the US to Thai representatives at the
first round of discussion on the issue yesterday contained many points that
would reduce Thai peoples' access to medicines.

Three of the most crucial points are:

lExtending drug patent terms from the normally granted length of 20 years to
compensate for "unreasonable" administrative delays to grant patent
licences;

lImposing five-year data-exclusivity provisions, which means a delay in the
production of generic versions of a patent-expired drug reaching the market.
The data-exclusivity rule would prevent the Thai Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) from releasing clinical trial data of the original drug
producers to generic drug companies for five years after the patent expires.

lRestricting the grounds that the Thai government can issue a compulsory
licence (a World Trade Organisation mechanism that allows member countries
to produce patented drugs for public non-commercial use or in the case of
national public health emergencies). Under the WTO's compulsory licence
provision, developing countries, including Thailand, are allowed to make
generic copies of patented drugs to cope with medical emergencies such as
HIV/Aids. This has cut the cost of vital anti-retroviral drugs drastically,
from Bt10,000 to Bt1,200 a month.

Tightening drug patents has been the most contentious issue of the Thai-US
Free Trade Agreement. Thousands of people with HIV and Aids took to the
streets over the past three days to rally against talks on the issue.

Pakdi Photisiri, secretary general of Thailand's FDA, who was a part of the
Thai negotiating team, said the US should respect its commitment to respect
the WTO's Doha declaration, which contains rules on compulsory licences.

"US representatives just said in Hong Kong [during WTO ministerial meeting
last month] that it will respect the WTO Doha declaration, that it would
follow the Doha declaration. So it should not force any country with
conditions that go beyond the WTO agreement," he said.

Kamol Uppakaew, of Network of People Living with HIV/Aids, voiced support
for the Thai negotiators' strong stance. He said both Kanisson and Pakdi had
to prove that they would really get tough - to protect the Thai people and
the country.

"It is understandable that the government would vow to protect the national
benefit, but you can't just talk - you have to do it," he said.

Kamol vowed that he and people with HIV/Aids would closely monitor the talks
and the positions taken by the Thai government.

International health experts have backed local activists and urged Bangkok
not to give up its right to use the flexibility in the WTO's trade-related
intellectual-property rights agreement.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) called on Thailand to
prtect access to vital drugs in the face of US pressure.

"We fear that if the Thai government accepts the US proposal, doctors in
Thailand will face substantial obstacles in providing treatment to their
patients living with HIV/Aids, especially for those that require newer
anti-retroviral (ARV) medicines to survive," MSF chief in Thailand Paul
Cawthorne said in a statement.

"This week, we have seen thousands of Thais demand that their government
protect access to medicines and defend the national HIV/Aids treatment
program. For the sake of the thousands of Thais who depend on the low-cost
of medicines, we hope they succeed."

Besides drug patents, Kanisson said Thai negotiators had already achieved a
result on geographical indicator status for Thai jasmine rice and silk.

He said the US "accepted in principle" that the terms jasmine rice and Thai
silk could only be used for products that originated from Thailand. This
would increase the protection status of Thai rice and silk to the same
status of wine products "protected" by the WTO. But he said the details
still needed to be discussed.



Accessed from: http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=3519



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