[Ip-health] Thailand: Latest talks with patent owners of cancer drugs show positive results

[Sarah Rimmington]

Intellectual Property Watch

5 November 2007
Thailand: Latest Talks With Patent Owners of Cancer Drugs Show Positive
Results
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=3D810&res=3D1440_ff&print=3D0

By Sinfah Tunsarawuth for Intellectual Property Watch
BANGKOK - Thai government officials said the latest round of
negotiations with patent owners of cancer treatment drugs showed
positive results with drug companies agreeing to make their supplies
more available to certain cancer patients.
But they stopped short of saying that the government would now have no
need to impose compulsory licences on these drugs.

=93They have made some good proposals, with more concessions than they
used to offer,=94 said Siriwat Tiptaradol, secretary general of Thailand=92=
s
Food and Drug Administration, who led Monday=92s negotiation with foreign
patent owners of three drugs used to treat various kinds of cancer.

Representatives from pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis, which
produces docetaxel for treating lung and breast cancer and markets it as
Taxotere and Novartis, which produces imatinib for treating leukemia and
gastrointestinal stromal tumors and letrozole for breast cancer and
markets them as Glivec and Femara respectively, joined Monday=92s meeting.
Roche, which manufactures erlotinib for treating lung cancer and markets
it as Tarceva, did not send its representative.

Siriwat, himself a physician, said Sanofi-Aventis so far has made the
most generous offer among the three companies. =93I think for
Sanofi-Aventis, we are near reaching a settlement,=94 he said in a
briefing to reporters after the meeting.

He said he has asked the company to submit its proposal in writing,
which he would then propose to the public health minister for final
decision. =93It is the minister who can say whether we still need to
impose compulsory licences or not.=94

Siriwat said for imatinib, Thai authorities have also agreed on =93ninety
percent=94 of the issues with Novartis. For letrozole, which is produced
by the same company, he said the patented formula did not cost that
much, 230 baht ($6.70) per pill, and it was not widely applied to
patients suffering from breast cancer.

He said Roche did not join Monday=92s meeting because the company said it
needed more time to come up with a revised proposal.
The proposals made by the three companies are not simply cuts of their
drug prices. Rather, they offer their patented drugs for free to
patients suffering from the later stages of the cancer under various
government-sponsored health insurance programs.

The government still would have to pay full price of the drugs for
patients at an early stage of the disease, Siriwat explained. But on
average, treatment of these cancer patients would cost the government less.

At issue with these companies, therefore, is the stage of cancer
development that will entitle the patients to free patented drugs and
the number of patients eligible for these drugs under the various
insurance schemes.

=93We have to understand them. If they cut the price in our country
outright, their peer companies in our neighbouring countries might start
to complain,=94 Siriwat said. =93We need to find a model which will not hav=
e
too much impact on their global pricing system.=94

Negotiations on the four cancer treatment drugs are the latest effort by
the Thai government to force price reductions on patented drugs and
avoid compulsory licensing, which allows the government to exercise its
right over the patent owners to cut prices and make the medicines more
available to the public.

Late last year, the Thai government, for the first time, announced its
use of compulsory licensing on two patented anti-retroviral drugs for
HIV/AIDS patients (efavirenz, manufactured and marketed by Merck Sharp
and Dohme as Stocrin, and lopinavir/ritonavir, manufactured and marketed
by Abbott Laboratories as Kaletra) and another anti-coagulant for
treating heart disease (clopidogrel, manufactured and marketed by
Sanofi-Aventis as Plavix) (IPW, Public Health, 12 March 2007).

But only efavirenz has so far been imported by the Government
Pharmaceutical Organization from India for use with AIDS patients. The
Thai government has identified suppliers, also in India, of
lopinavir/ritonavir and clopidogrel and is working through the process
to import them.

Sorachai Jamniandamrongkarn, a pharmaceutical expert at the National
Health Security Office, said earlier in an interview with Intellectual
Property Watch that Thailand has in its pipeline about 20 more items of
various patented drugs that could be candidates for compulsory licences.
The items include drugs for treating hypertension, diabetes and
hyperlipidaemia (IPW, Public Health, 2 November 2007).

Sinfah Tunsarawuth may be reached at info@ip-watch.ch.

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--
Sarah Rimmington
Attorney
Essential Action, Access to Medicines Project
Washington, DC
Tel: (202) 387-8030
Cell: (202) 422-2687
www.essentialaction.org/access/