[Ip-health] Interview - Thai health minister defends drug patent policy

[Jean Blaylock]

INTERVIEW-Thai health minister defends drug patent policy
Thu Jan 31, 2008 5:45am EST
Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSBKK304388

By Darren Schuettler

BANGKOK, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Thailand's outgoing Health Minister Mongkol na =
Songkhla defended on Thursday his unprecedented challenge of foreign drug p=
atent rights, saying the poor would lose if a new government reversed the p=
olicy.

Mongkol, a hero to health activists and vilified by major drug firms for ov=
erriding patents on two AIDS drugs and a heart medicine, is targeting four =
cancer drugs in his final days in office before a new government takes powe=
r next month.

In early January, soon after a Dec. 23 election marking Thailand's return t=
o democracy after a 2006 coup, Mongkol approved compulsory licences allowin=
g Bangkok to make or buy cheaper, copycat versions of the cancer medicines.

But Thai negotiators will seek a final round of talks with the drug firms b=
efore using the licences, he said.

"They have already met twelve times. If they cannot achieve what they want,=
 they can use the signed papers," Mongkol, 66, told Reuters in an interview=
.

He did not name the drugs, but the Bangkok Post has said the four were Letr=
ozole and Imanitib made by Novartis (NOVN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research), Do=
cetaxel by Sanofi-Aventis (SASY.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) and Roche's (=
ROG.VX: Quote, Profile, Research) Erlotinib.

Cancer is Thailand's number one killer and the government says it cannot af=
ford patented drugs for its national health scheme, which covers 80 percent=
 of its 63 million people.

Major drug makers were stunned in late 2006 when Mongkol, a former rural do=
ctor and senior health bureaucrat appointed by the military after the coup,=
 launched one of the biggest challenges to their patent rights in years.

He overrode the patent on Merck's AIDS drug Efavirenz, enabling Thailand to=
 buy a cheaper generic version from an Indian firm. Months later he did the=
 same on an AIDS drug made by Abbott Laboratories and a Sanofi-Aventis hear=
t medicine.

Global drug makers denounced what they called a violation of intellectual p=
roperty rights and the United States put Bangkok on its "priority watch lis=
t", citing weaker respect for patents.

With a pro-business coalition government due to take power as early as next=
 week, drug makers are betting on a policy change.

Thailand's Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association said this =
week the new government "understands that collaboration with all stakeholde=
rs in the health sector is needed to address the real issues affecting the =
quality of healthcare and development of innovation-based industries".

Mongkol, who has said the coup gave him an opportunity to act after a year =
of failed price talks with drug firms, insisted Thailand had acted legally =
under World Trade Organisation rules.

"I think if any country, including the United States, did not agree with wh=
at we did, they should change the law," he said.

On speculation that his successor would reverse the compulsory licences, Mo=
ngkol said: "If anyone wants to change it, it's their responsibility. The p=
eople who will lose are the poor". (Editing by Michael Battye)

=A9 Reuters 2008 All rights reserved




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