[Ip-health] Inter Press Service News Agency: Thailand Turns Giant Pharma Killer

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=3D37675

HEALTH:
Thailand Turns Giant Pharma Killer
Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, May 10 (IPS) - By standing up to pressure from =91big pharma'
over cheap anti-AIDS drugs, Thailand may have created an opening in
global trade rules that will permit developing countries to more
readily break patents in times of public health emergencies.

The fact that the United States government has clarified that Bangkok
had not violated any laws under the special provisions of the
Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) of the World
Trade Organisation (WTO) is significant.

Last week, the U.S. Trade Representative's office (USTR) placed
Thailand on a watch list of countries that had, in general, violated
intellectual property rights. Thailand first broke the patent on the
anti-retroviral (ARV) drug =91Efavirenz' produced by U.S. pharmaceutical
company Merck Sharp and Dohme last November, and went on to do the same
with =91Kaletra', another anti-HIV/AIDS drug from U.S. pharma major
Abbott Laboratories as well as =91Plavis', a blood-thinner made by
Sanofi-Aventis, in January.

Noticeably, there was lack of precision in the USTR annual report on
intellectual property protection regarding the Thai move to issue a
compulsory license (CL) early this year to secure cheaper alternatives
for Kaletra, the drug marketed by Abbott, from India.

''While the U.S. acknowledges a country's ability to issue such
licences in accordance with WTO rules, the lack of transparency and due
process exhibited in Thailand represents a serious concern,'' states
the report.

Far more strident in its criticism to scuttle Bangkok's efforts is the
language on a pro-pharmaceutical website launched Monday to campaign
against Thailand's pro-poor public health policies. =91'Thailand's
actions violate the TRIPS agreement of the WTO,'' states the website,
www.Thailies.com. =91'WTO members are not allowed to issue compulsory
licenses without full and transparent negotiations.''

Since then the advantage secured by Thailand in testing -- and winning
-- the right to use CLs has earned it praise from a broad section of
activists, HIV patients and academics at home and abroad. =91'Other
countries will feel more confident in issuing CLs, rather than
threatening to issue them but not doing so due to pressure,'' says Paul
Cawthorne of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the international
humanitarian agency, in an interview.

=91'This can set a precedent, a new understanding, about what developing
countries can do under TRIPS,'' adds Jacques-chai Chomthongdi, a
researcher at Focus on the Global South, a Bangkok-based think tank.
=91'This is to the advantage of developing countries.''

In fact, the U.S. could not fault Thailand for violating trade rules
since Bangkok's policies are compliant with TRIPS, he explained to IPS.
=91'Thailand has acted within local and WTO laws.''

Washington's fuzzy, ambiguous language towards Thailand for invoking a
CL stands in contrast with the tough stance taken previously to defend
brand-name drugs of pharmaceutical corporations when threatened by the
special provisions under TRIPS, which permit a developing country to
produce or import generics. These provisions in global free trade,
permitting developing countries to break patents in times of a national
health crisis, were approved during the WTO ministerial meeting in
Doha, in 2001.

By the weekend, Thai activists were celebrating the possible ripple
effect across the developing world in the wake of Bangkok's quest for
cheaper generic drugs. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
signed a decree Friday in Brasilia to issue a CL for =91Efavirenz'.

The emergence of such a South-South alliance to bring down the prices
of life-prolonging drugs through CLs was no surprise for Thai activists
like Kannikar Kijtiwatchakul of Free Trade Agreement Watch, a
non-governmental organisation campaigning against global corporate
agendas. =91'Brazil learnt from us. They asked Thailand what it did to
issue a compulsory license,'' she told IPS.

=91'Thailand has been an inspiration and an example for us all on this
matter,'' wrote a public health official in the Brazilian government in
a letter to officials at Thailand's public health ministry in early
March. At that time, Bangkok was in the glare of international
attention for taking the side of people's lives over corporate profits.

=91'It is time to unite all those who have always defended the use of
TRIPS flexibilities, which can be invoked in the name of protecting
public health, as in the case of compulsory licenses,'' added the
Working Group on Intellectual Property from the Brazilian Network for
the Integration of Peoples in a late-April e-mail to Thai activists.

Thailand's clash with Abbott, which began in January following the
government's issuing of a CL for =91Kaletra' , intensified in March when
Abbott retaliated by refusing to register seven new drugs in the
South-east Asian country. It meant depriving Thais of a new ARV,
Aluvia, which is conducive and can be easily stored in tropical
climates, an antibiotic, a painkiller and drugs for kidney disease and
blood clots.

By early April, faced with growing criticism and Thai reluctance to
cave into pressure, Abbott agreed to supply both ARVs to Thailand at a
reduced price of 1,000 US dollars for a year's dosage per patient. In
exchange, the pharma giant wanted the CL for Kaletra dropped.

The Thai public health officials out to capitalise on the frequently
debated WTO rule are in step with an impressive record the country has
maintained in caring for its citizens with HIV/AIDS and reduce the
spread of the killer disease. Currently, some 90 percent of people who
need ARVs are treated through a universal health care scheme. The
country has over 600,000 people infected with HIV and has recorded
300,000 deaths due to AIDS.

=91'All CLs have done is to open up a monopolistic market to
competition,'' says Cawthorn of MSF. =91'Why should the pharmaceutical
companies be worried about that?''

(END/2007)

---------------------------------
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