[Ip-health] Bangkok Post: Chiya's plan for CL poicy review hits major hurdle

[Jérôme Martin]

Dear Friends,

Please find below pictures of Act Up-Paris's demonstration in front of
the Thaï embassy today :

http://www.actupparis.org/article3299.html

On the banner : "Death under patent". We gave a protest letter to a
representative of the embassy.

Best

Jérôme / Miss Heatstable
Act Up-Paris

Le mardi 19 février 2008 à 20:57 -0500, Sarah Rimmington a écrit :
> From Phil Robertson:
>
> Bangkok Post, Feb. 20, 2008
>
> Chaiya's plan for CL policyreview hits major hurdle
>
> APIRADEE TREERUTKUARKUL
>
>  A plan by Public Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsab to review the policy
> on compulsory licensing (CL) for four cancer drugs has hit a major
> obstacle after officials from three ministries found that it cannot be
> revoked.
>
> Mr Chaiya said permanent secretaries of the commerce, foreign affairs
> and public health ministries had concluded that the ministerial
> announcements on four cancer drugs made by former public health minister
> Mongkol na Songkhla were legitimate and could not be lifted.
>
> Although Mr Chaiya could not change the policy, a source said the
> government might take no further action under CL to bypass the patents
> of cancer drugs.
>
> The meeting of the three ministries was ordered by Prime Minister Samak
> Sundaravej last week to decide if it should go ahead with the previous
> government's scheme to break the cancer drug patents.
>
> Dr Mongkol signed four ministerial announcements on Jan 4 to
> individually license Letrozole, a breast cancer medicine produced by
> Novartis, breast and lung cancer drug Docetaxel made by Sanofi Aventis,
> Roche's Erlotinib, used for treating lung, pancreatic and ovarian
> cancer, and Imatinib of Novartis used on people with leukaemia.
>
> But he struck a deal with Novartis as the patent holder agreed to supply
> its medicine free to more than 900 patients under its philanthropic
> programme.
>
> In a forum about Thai policy on CL yesterday, Foundation for Consumers
> manager Saree Ongsomwang said health activists and networks of cancer
> patients and people living with HIV/Aids were monitoring government
> actions on CL.
>
> ''We will definitely not agree with the government if the CL policy for
> cancer drugs has to be shelved or delayed until the US Trade
> Representative finishes reviewing the list of countries receiving export
> benefits from the US Generalised System of Preferences in April,'' she sa=
id.
>
> Pongthep Wongwatcharapaiboon, a rural doctor at Na Noi hospital in Nan
> province, said the poor would be most affected if the government did not
> extend access to cancer drugs through CL.
>
> Cancer drugs were very expensive and available only at private hospitals
> and large medical schools in urban areas.
>
> The lack of financial support from the National Health Security Office,
> which runs the universal healthcare scheme, made it impossible for the
> 626 community hospitals across the country to treat cancer patients in
> remote areas.
>
> Sarah Ireland, an Oxfam regional director for East Asia, urged the
> government to continue with CL for cancer drugs and other life-saving
> medicines so that poor people would have greater access to them.
> Thailand should be a leader for low and middle-income countries in
> exercising its flexibility within the Trade-Related Aspects of
> Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) to widen public access to these
> medicines, she added.
>
>
>
>
> --
> Philip S. Robertson Jr.
> --Consultant -- Human Rights, Labor, Migration & Human Trafficking, &
> Development
> --Technical Advisor on Migration and Workers Rights, SEARCH
> --Chair -- Democrats Abroad Thailand (DAT)
> --Coordinator, SAIS Alumni in Siam (SAIS)
> mobile phone: (66-85) 060-8406
> fax: (66-2) 672-0592
> skype: philrobertsonjr
> email:  Reaproy@gmail.com
> email 2: Reaproy@yahoo.com
> blog: www.democratsabroadthailand.blogspot.com
>
> mail address: 289/22 Naratiwat Rachanakarin Soi 24, Building A -- Apt.
> 1055, Chong Nonsi, Yannawa, Bangkok 10120, THAILAND
>
> "The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience.  With this
> secret, we can enjoy life..."  -- Voltaire
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Sarah Rimmington
> Attorney
> Essential Action, Access to Medicines Project
> Washington, DC
> Tel: (202) 387-8030
> Cell: (202) 422-2687
> www.essentialaction.org/access/
>
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