[Ip-health] Thai saga

[James Love]

There is no doubt that there is plenty of bullying, lying, angling for
industry jobs after leaving the government, and other mean spirited
stuff going on here.

Even so, Thailand has benefited at least somewhat from interventions
from some sympathetic members of the US Congress and government (and the
European Parliament and EC), and this has and I hope will continue to
moderate somewhat the full brunt of the fury that PhRMA would like to
see unleashed.   To this end, the .5 percent royalty rate was unhelpful,
bad PR, and almost completely unnecessary in terms of the policy.

To make things more concrete, the price of Plavix dropped from 77 to 1
baht once competition was introduced.  A royalty of .5 percent of 1 baht
was .005 baht per pill, or 1.825 baht per year, equal to about 6 US
cents at current exchange rates.   A 5 percent royalty, 10 times as
high, would have been a royalty of 18.25 baht per year or 58 US cents,
per year.

The price of Plavix before the CL was $888 per year.  After the CL, it
was $11.53 per year.  Arguing about 6 cents versus 58 cents is losing
sight of the big picture, I think.

  Jamie

On Thu, 2008-04-03 at 11:10 +1100, Peter Drahos wrote:
> I do not believe that upping the royalty rate
> will reduce the pressure on countries like
> Thailand. During the Uruguay Trade Round, the US
> made a lot of promises about backing off on its
> trade unilateralism if developing countries
> signed up to the WTO, TRIPS and its jolly nice
> dispute resolution mechanism. The FTA IP jihad
> followed soon after. I also think there may be
> cases where .5% will be appropriate. Hard to see
> how a country like Laos can afford much more.
> Of course, this Thai saga has in part been about
> sending a message to other countries in the
> region about what to expect if they exercise
> their lawful rights =C2=AD Al Capone and the boys are
> gonna pay you a visit and now there=E2=80=99s a minimum rate you can=E2=
=80=99t go below.
> Chomsky somewhere has a nice line about
> domination in the world today =C2=AD =E2=80=9Cthe rule of law
> for the weak, the rule of force for the strong=E2=80=9D
>
> Peter Drahos
>
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>
--
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James Love, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
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When everyone thinks the same, no one thinks.  Bill Walton remix of Walter =
Lippmann