[Ip-health] Bangkok Post, Thailand considers revoking C.L. on Merck's efavirenz

[B.Baker@neu.edu]

Like Brazil in the recent past, Thailand is playing into drug companies
hands if it backs down on implementing compulsory licenses for short-term
gains in the form of price discounts or even sweetheart
licensing/technology transfer deals.  Developing countries need to
understand that their greatest strength is in numbers - in their
willingness to aggregate markets to energize generic entry and then robust
generic prices that will drive the costs of medicine lower and lower over
time.  Brazil thought it had gotten good deals three times in the past only
to discover that the advantages of temporary and partial price discounts
were overrun by the dynamics of generic competition, often aided by
behind-the-scenes efforts by the Clinton Foundation.

It may be hard for Thailand to justify paying higher prices for a generic
product in the short run, but the advantages of having multiple and more
local suppliers to prevent stock-outs and the advantages of helping to
create a highly competitive generics market outweigh the temporary
advantages.  Likewise, although Thailand may feel that it needs to back
down because of the intense pressure being exerted by the US, by Big
Pharma, and by right-wing think tanks, the issuance and enforcement of
compulsory licenses will get easier over time as developing countries
overcome the first-mover problem and more and more countries jump on board.

The need for compulsory licenses in producing countries and/or in exporting
and importing countries will become more intense over time as Pharma
patents its newer medicines more intensively in developing countries and as
all the major producing countries have now been required to adopt product
patents and to issue patents on post-TRIPS medical innovations.  Hopefully,
Thailand can become convinced to do no more than suspend, rather than
revoke the compulsory license, or better yet continue to source generics
because of the long-term and collective advantage of doing so.

Brook

Bangkok Post, May 24, 2007

http://www.bangkokpost.net/News/24May2007_news02.php

DRUGS PATENT ROW / INFORMAL TALKS WITH US PHARMACEUTICAL FIRM

Govt considers revoking compulsory licence for Efavirenz

APIRADEE TREERUTKUARKUL

The government is considering revoking the compulsory licence issued for a
generic version of the HIV/Aids medicine Efavirenz after a promising start
to informal talks with patent holder Merck & Co Inc in the United States
yesterday.

Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla said Merck representatives
proposed several interesting options for the anti-retroviral medication
which could lead to a win-win solution for both sides.

''Who wants to buy generic drugs for treating patients if the original drug
is more affordable?'' he said during a teleconference from the United
States.

His unexpected comment came just one day after he said the trip to the US
had failed to make any inroads into ending the disagreements between
Thailand and US pharmaceutical firms.

US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez was reported to have put pressure
on the Thai team to abandon its policy of compulsory licensing.

The Public Health Ministry last November issued a compulsory licence to
import a generic version of Efavirenz from Indian drug maker Ranbaxy which
would cost 540 baht per month per patient _ considerably cheaper than the
original drug, which costs 726 baht per month per patient.

Dr Mongkol did not give details of the options proposed by the New
Jersey-based pharmaceutical firm but said it could be a good example for
other drug makers whose patents for Aids and blood thinning drugs had been
overridden.

Dr Mongkol insisted the government reserved the right to use compulsory
licensing if a problem of access to affordable medicines occurred with any
life-threatening disease in Thailand.

Thai Public Health, Commerce and Foreign Affairs ministry officials were in
the US to explain to US representatives from various sectors, including
pharmaceutical firms, the government's decisions to bypass patents on Aids
drugs Efavirenz and Kaletra and the heart drug Plavix.

Billy Tauzin, president and chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Research
and Manufacturers of America, representing the leading US pharmaceutical
research and biotechnology companies, also made it clear to the health
minister that leading American drug firms remained deeply troubled by
Thailand's use of compulsory licensing.

''Pursuing such drastic measures, as the Thai government has done, not only
hurts the innovative engine that helps economies around the world prosper.
Worse, it could also limit access to new breakthrough medicines for
patients suffering from life-threatening diseases such as HIV/Aids and
cancer,'' he said. ''Clearly, Thai patients deserve better.''

But Dr Mongkol argued that Washington had received misleading information
about Thai policy.

Virat Poorahong of the Thai network Living with HIV/Aids expressed concern
at the government's indecisiveness.

''We do not support the government threatening drug companies by announcing
compulsory licensing. But we want the government to think and act fast,''
Mr Virat said.

''We're talking about the lives of half a million HIV-positive people and
many more cancer patients who could be short of life-saving medications.''