[Ip-health] Reuters: Thailand Talking with Drug Firms - U.S. Chamber

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesting.aspx?
type=health&storyID=2007-03
-20T170242Z_01_SP60329_RTRIDST_0_SP_PAGE_015-SP60329-OISHE.XML

Thailand Talking with Drug Firms - U.S. Chamber
Tue Mar 20, 2007 5:02 PM GMT

By Vithoon Amorn

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand will continue talks with global
pharmaceutical firms on a drug pricing dispute after its decisions to
issue compulsory licenses for some medicines, an executive of the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce said on Tuesday.

A meeting with cabinet ministers produced hope the government and
pharmaceutical companies could resolve their disputes, Daniel
Christman, the chamber's senior vice president said.

"What we found here was a willingness of Thai government officials to
continue a dialogue which, in their view, has been uninterrupted."

The meeting followed an announcement by Abbott Laboratories last week
that it would not introduce new new drugs in Thailand in protest at the
way the army-backed government ignored international drug patents.

Thailand issued a compulsory license in January allowing it to make or
buy generic versions of Abbott's Kaletra to treat HIV/AIDS to loud
applause from AIDS activists.

Abbott is believed to be the first pharmaceutical firm to withhold new
medicines from Thailand since the government shocked drug makers late
last year with its first compulsory license, for Efavirenz, an HIV/AIDS
treatment made by Merck & Co.

Thailand has since also issued one for Plavix, a heart disease medicine
made by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis, the first time a
developing nation has done so for such a treatment.

Christman said the consequences could be in foreign investment.

"One of the ways in which a country can compete successfully is to
attract foreign investment through a reputation that says it respects
the protection of intellectual property," he said.

The U.S. Chamber said a survey of 234 foreign business executives this
month showed Thailand's new economic policies and poor intellectual
property safeguards could disrupt foreign investment.

"Fully 75 percent of executives say the recent military coup and
controversial new economic policies in Thailand would be factors in
their final decision on investments over the next three years," it said
in a statement.

Although legal under world trade rules, the compulsory licenses, which
allow governments to make or buy generic versions of medicines needed
for public health measures, stunned drug makers who received no prior
warning.

Other policy decisions criticized by foreign investors were moves to
tighten foreign business ownership and capital controls on foreign
funds brought in.

The chamber said executives put Thailand in the top spot among six
Southeast Asian countries where government decisions had damaged
business attitudes.

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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
voice +41.22.791.6727
fax +41.22.723.2988
mobile +41 76 508 0997
thiru@keionline.org