[Ip-health] Thailand -- Urgent! / slightly modified version

[Gaelle Krikorian]

Dear all,

Here is a proposed letter to the Minister of Health. You -
individuals and organizations - can sign and send it or, if you
prefer, write your own.

The Prime Minister told the media that the government will make its
decision within the coming week, and either implement the compulsory
licenses or cancel them. We have to act now and show them that many
people all over the world are:
1. Paying close attention to what is going on in Thailand and
supporting our friends and colleagues from the Thai NGOs;
2. Supporting the use of compulsory licenses to ensure access to
medicine;
3. Ready to confront the pharmaceutical lobby when it attempts to
intimidate governments and threatens people's lives.

Let's give the MOH and PM a chance to see that support for compulsory
licenses comes from everywhere and that the movement for access to
medicine is strong!

Below are the fax contacts of the MOH, its General Secretariat, and
the PM.

Please, send your letters as soon as possible; time is flying.

Ga=EBlle

Mr.Samak Sundaravej
Thai Prime Minister
Government House
Nakornpratom Rd.
Dusit, Bangkok
Thailand 10300
Fax +66 2590 2021
Tel +66 2590 2028 / 2056

General secretariate MOPH
Fax +66 2590 1138
Tel +66 2590 1007 / 1014

Mr.Chaiya Sasomsap
Minister of Public Health
Tiwanont Rd.
Talad Kwan District
Nontaburi Province 11000
Tel +66 2281 4040
Fax +66 2282 5131

----
=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09Mr.Chaiya Sasomsap
=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09Minister of Public Health
=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09Tiwanont Rd.
=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09Talad Kwan District
=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09Nontaburi Province 11000
=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09Thailand


Dear Minister Chaiya Sasomsab,


Newspapers reported that your government is in the process of
reviewing several compulsory licenses recently issued by the previous
government.

At the end of 2006, Thailand decided to make use of its right to
issue compulsory licenses in order to ensure access to medicine for
its population and the sustainability of its universal medical coverage.

In doing so, Thailand demonstrated its sense of accountability toward
its patients. By implementing a thoughtful policy, based on the
country=92s needs in terms of access to medicine, its experts and
political leaders offered an example to other countries, showing that
it is possible for developing countries to enforce international
intellectual property agreements while at the same time using lawful
flexibilities when needed (as allowed by the TRIPS Agreement and
restated by the Doha Declaration).

Through the media, we also took note of the fact that the brand-name
pharmaceutical industry and its followers are trying to influence
your newly elected government by raising their usual threats (to push
for Thailand to be placed on the "Priority Foreign Country" list or
for its GSP privileges to be limited, to reduce investment in the
country, etc). This immoral behavior leads us to make the following
comments:


First, the pharmaceutical industry is not omnipotent and cannot force
the USTR to go against the US law itself, or to simply comply with
its desires. Recent changes in US trade policy have demonstrated this
(1). In the meantime, under the influence of the Democrats,
congressional investigations of pharmaceutical products and
companies=92 practices are more and more numerous (2), which seems to
suggest that the pharmaceutical lobby is losing influence. Moreover,
conceding to this pressure will only incentivize them to perpetually
raise their demands and further confiscate people=92s rights and
countries=92 sovereignty.

Second, the brand-name pharmaceutical industry and its supporters are
wrong. The Thai health policy is fully legal and is greatly useful to
the population. A number of individuals, groups, and countries have
expressed their support for the Thai initiative and are ready to do
so again. Such supporters stood up in Doha once, and they will not
accept the reign of terror that the pharmaceutical industry is now
again trying to impose.

With this letter, therefore, we would like to express our support for
your efforts and our hope that Thailand will not be intimidated and
will pursue its policy, basing its decisions on the interest of its
people above all else.

Sincerely,


CC:
Mr.Samak Sundaravej
Prime Minister
Government House
Nakornpratom Rd.
Dusit, Bangkok
Thailand 10300

(1) See for examples the changes made by the USTR in the US-Peru FTA,
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=3D811

(2) See for examples:
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/democrats-work-to-subpoena-fda-
investigators-2008-01-29.html
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?
uuid=3D1517DB62-3048-5C12-00017FE1FCEC954F
http://www.pharmalot.com/2008/01/the-democrats-are-coming/
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/01/16/congress-investigates-vytorin-
ads/
http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/elizabethberry/Cvms

(3) In addition to the vast number of groups and NGOs on the five
continents, former president Bill Clinton, members of the US
Congress, and representatives of France, the United Kingdom, Brazil,
Germany, India, Malaysia, Philippines, among others, praised the Thai
policy on compulsory licensing.