[Ip-health] Reuters: Thailand Fails to Win Over U.S. on Drug Patents

Wed May 23 06:05:03 2007

Thailand Fails to Win Over U.S. on Drug Patents
Wed May 23, 2007 8:02 AM BST15

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand will press ahead with overriding patents
on three foreign-made drugs, Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla said
after failing to win a sympathetic ear from trade officials in
Washington.

"We achieved nothing. From now on, the commerce, foreign affairs and
public health ministries will go ahead with the CL process," the Nation
newspaper quoted Mongkol as saying on a conference call from the U.S.
capital.

Mongkol, whose ministry has declared compulsory licenses (CL) on two
AIDS drugs and a heart disease treatment in a bid to secure lower
prices for Thailand's poor, said his meeting with U.S. Commerce
Secretary Carlos Gutierrez was "totally negative."

"It's clear he obviously represents the drug companies. There was no
sign of friendship left when he started talking," the Bangkok Post
quoted Mongkol as saying.

The licenses, which world trade rules allow governments to issue to
make or buy copycat versions of drugs for public health measures,
shocked the pharmaceutical companies who complained they received no
prior warning.

Subsequent price talks with the three drug makers -- U.S.-based Abbott
Laboratories (ABT.N: Quote, Profile , Research) and Merck & Co Inc
(MRK.N: Quote, Profile , Research) and Europe's Sanofi-Aventis
(SASY.PA: Quote, Profile , Research) -- have produced no deals so far.

Mongkol led a delegation to Washington after it put Thailand on a
"priority watch list," citing a "weakening of respect for patents"
which could open the Southeast Asian nation and major U.S. trading
partner to retaliatory measures.

Thailand, a former AIDS hotspot, has won praise for reducing infections
and expanding drug treatment to 100,000 of the 580,000 Thais living
with AIDS.

But the government says it faces budget pressures as more people need
treatment through the national health scheme, which covers 80 percent
of Thailand's 63 million people.

Thailand has won support from health activists and former U.S.
President Bill Clinton, whose foundation brokers deals with generic
drug makers to provide lower-priced drugs for developing nations.

But the drug industry's defenders accuse Thailand's post-coup,
military-backed government of stealing American intellectual property
and are pressing for trade sanctions against Bangkok.

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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