[Ip-health] Thailand to issue CLs on 14 drugs?

[Benjamin Krohmal]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
http://pharmalot.com/2007/02/thai_government_what_patents.php

February 14, 2007
Thai Government: What Patents?

The new Thai government is now reportedly targeting another 14 drugs
for which compulsory licenses will be issued. The country already
decided to 'break' patents on three drugs - two AIDS treatments and a
heart med.

There was no official comment but on Monday, Health Minister Mongkol
na Songkhla told Reuters that a ministry panel was studying drugs
Thailand needed and could make or buy copies while haggling for best
prices of patented versions. He did not name the drugs being studied.

Drugmakers are furious. "This action is completely unprecedented
anywhere in the world," Teera Chakajnarodom, president of the
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers' Association of Thailand,
which reps 43 companies. "Far from providing poor patients with the
best medicines, the compulsory licence policy might block access to
new treatments in Thailand."

Until now, the US Trade Rep has insisted the US is maintaining a
delicate balancing act between acknowledging Thailand's right to take
its actions under WHO rules and its own interest in protecting
intellectual property rights of corporations.

But for how long?

Posted by Ed Silverman




Benjamin Krohmal
Coordinator - Project on Medical Innovation
Knowledge Ecology International
Tel: +1-202-332-2670 ex. 14
Fax: +1-202-332-2673
ben.krohmal@keionline.org