[Ip-health] SciDev.Net: Thailand backs off threat to break drug patents

[Johanna von Braun]

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Thailand backs off threat to break drug patents
by Piya Wong
8 February 2007
Source: SciDev.Net

[BANGKOK] Thailand has delayed breaking the patent of an AIDS drug and a
heart medicine, and entered into negotiations with drug firms to lower the
price so that more people can be treated.

The negotiation panel of the Public Health Ministry yesterday (7 February)
held its first talks with US firm Abbott to discuss a price reduction for
the AIDS drug Kaletra.

Thawat Suntrajarn, head of the department of disease control, said the firm
had offered to drop the price from around US$260 per person per month, to
US$170. But the offer failed to satisfy the ministry, and the two sides
agreed to negotiate again next month.

Last month the government threatened to break the patent on both Kaletra an=
d
Plavix, a heart medicine produced by Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Meyers
Squibb. It issued two compulsory licenses, which, under World Trade
Organization rules, would have allowed other firms to produce the patented
products without the patent owners' consent.

Had the Plavix license gone ahead, it would have marked the first time that
a developing country had used compulsory licensing to challenge patents for
a 'life-style' disease =97 one that is not for AIDS or an epidemic.

But the move drew strong opposition from the drug producers. The World
Health Organization pursuaded the Thai government to negotiate with drug
firms before issuing a compulsory license.

According to Thawat, the government is willing to give drug firms a fair
chance to deal with the matter. "It's also partly because our drug
production capacity for this drug is not quite up and in place," he added.

Kaletra is relied upon by about 20,000 HIV/AIDS patients in Thailand who
have developed resistance to the more conventional drugs, placing a severe
financial burden on the public health service.

Nimit Tienudom, director of the Bangkok-based Aids Access Foundation, said
compulsory licensing could prove a crucial tool, empowering the government
to bargain for public interests.

But Switzerland-based Ellen Hoen, from Med=E9cins sans Fronti=E8res, cautio=
ned
that negotiation may not be the best way forward.

"History has shown that the best way to bring prices down is by competition
and generic production," Hoen told SciDev.Net.

She cited a similar case in Brazil, which ended up with relatively high dru=
g
prices being fixed for a number of years.

The ministry has not yet made clear what steps will be taken for Plavix.