[Ip-health] New stories from IPS and Thai News Agency stories re Thai CL Policy

[Sarah Rimmington]

1. http://enews.mcot.net/view.php?id=3D2925
Health ministry urged not to scrap Compulsory Licensing

BANGKOK, Feb 21 (TNA) - Several Thai consumer and disease protection
groups Thursday demanded that the government not revoke the compulsory
licenses (CL) issued for drugs to treat heart disease and the deadly
HIV/AIDS virus, while importers of expensive foreign-made heart disease
treatment medications have stopped importing the medicines.

Emphasising that Thais now living in France and the United States have
already protested the new government's apparent move to withdraw
compulsory licensing at the Thai embassies in the two countries, Saree
Ongsomwang, manager of the Consumer Protection Foundation, as well as
senior officials of four disease protection groups, insisted that
Thailand would gain more than lose from maintaining CL.

The four groups appeared at a press conference including the Aids Access
Foundation, The Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, the Cancer
Club and the Kidney Friend Club.

She said Thais living in Brazil and India also planned to make a similar
move.

Ms. Sari said that the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) provided
to Thai exports by the US was meaningless to Thailand when compared to
the impact to come from revocation of the CL status threatened earlier
by Public Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsup which would prevent the poor
patients who were unable to access the expensive medications.

The Consumer Protection Foundation would like to ask the Thai Commerce
Ministry to stop presenting reports which could create international and
intellectual property rights problems, Miss Saree said.

The patent-bypassing compulsory licensing for drugs treating cancer has
now affected medicines to treat heart disease as well, as importers have
stopped importing them, citing the uncertainty of the Thai government in
response to the CL problem, she added.

The military-appointed government, which came to power in the September
2006 coup, imposed CLs last year on the heart medication Plavix and two
AIDS drugs =96 Efavirenx and Kaletra. Outgoing public health minister
Mongkol Na Songkhla the issued another batch of CL decisions for four
cancer medicines =96 Imanitib, Letrozole, Docetaxel and Erlotinibas.

But the current Public Health Minister Chaiya immediately suspended the
controversial CL process soon after assuming his post, saying that the
plan could harm Thailand's trade relations with Washington. He said his
ministry would review the CL approvals for key cancer drugs by the
previous government. (TNA)-E111

General News : Last Update : 19:46:44 21 February 2008 (GMT+7:00)
Archives

2. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=3D41286
IPS
HEALTH-THAILAND: New Gov't Opposes Cheap Generic Drugs
By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Feb 21 (IPS) - Shortly before he left office in January,
Thailand=92s former public health minister, Mongkol Na Songkhla, offered a
gift of hope to the country=92s poor. But that promise -- to supply
cheaper, generic anti-cancer drugs --now hangs in the balance.

Mongkol=92s push to secure the generic drugs by issuing =91=92compulsory
licenses=92=92 (CLs) is being opposed his successor, Chiya Sasomsab, whose
recent announcement to cancel a plan for affordable drugs to treat
breast, lung, pancreatic and ovarian cancer has raised howls of protest
from public health activists.

Some activists are even weighing the possibility of legal action against
the new public health minister if he goes through with his plan. =91=92We
have already begun discussing with lawyers about taking the minister to
court for trying to revoke the decision of the last health minister,=92=92
Kannikar Kijitwatchakul, a leading activist for the Free Trade Agreement
Watch (FTA Watch), told IPS. =91=92The new minister is trying to reverse a
legitimate decision.=92=92

The significance of this odd turn of events has not been lost on other
champions of cheaper generic drugs for the economically weak Thais,
since Mongkol was a minister appointed in a government that came to
power following a military coup, in September 2006. Chiya, by contrast,
was named minister by a government popularly elected at the first
parliamentary elections after the coup, in late December.

=91=92It is ironic that a health minister appointed during a military regim=
e
should be better for the country than one appointed by an elected
government,=92=92 Jon Ungpakorn, a former member of Thailand=92s Senate, sa=
id
in an IPS interview. =91=92Our present health minister has no regard for
public health issues. He is behaving like the commerce minister.=92=92

Currently, an 80 mg injection for one of the drugs, Docetexel, for
patients with lung and breast cancer, costs 25,000 baht (781 US
dollars), while the generic equivalent costs 4,000 baht (125 dollars).
And the cost of a 2.5 mg tablet of another drug, Letrozole, for breast
cancer patients, is 230 baht (7.18 dollars), while the price of a
generic version of the same tablet sells for 7 baht (20 US cents).

According to a health ministry study of the disease burden in the
country for 2003, there were 5,215 news cases of breast cancer reported
that year, while there were 9,830 new cases of lung cancer reported. Yet
the rural and urban poor suffering from such cancers have no access to
the brand name drugs available on the market, doctors reveal.

In fact, the stakes here are much higher than the obvious question: Is
democracy bad for public health in Thailand? For this South-east Asian
nation has emerged as the battleground in a tussle to secure cheap
generic drugs for the poor that will have implications across the Global
South.

Thailand has won praise from governments, United Nations agencies and
activists as a role model for poor and middle-income countries to follow
after Mongkol took the lead in late 2006 to issue CLs for two
life-prolonging anti-AIDS drugs and a blood-thinner drug for heart
patients. His decision to issue CLs for the four anti-cancer drugs was
made on Jan. 4, this year.

Under international trade rules, developing countries, when faced with
public health emergencies, enjoy the right to break a patent on
expensive brand-name drugs produced by pharmaceutical giants and seek
alternative and cheaper generic versions. This option is recognised by
the World Trade Organisation (WTO) under the flexible provisions of the
trade related intellectual property rights (TRIPS).

Yet, though the TRIPS =91=92flexibilities=92=92 was approved at a WTO
ministerial meeting in Doha, in 2001, developing countries avoided
testing the provision fearing a backlash from the world=92s powerful
economies, such as the United States, which has taken the side of the
drug multinationals.

Such concern appeared justified when Washington placed Thailand on a
=91=92watch list=92=92 of countries that had, in general, violated intellec=
tual
property rights in May 2007. It worried the private sector here, with
some fearing that the country=92s exports, which contribute 60 percent to
the gross domestic product, will be hit.

But Thailand has, till the recent flap, refused to cave in, confirming
Bangkok=92s commitment to place the lives of its weak and vulnerable ahead
of corporate profits. It has moved from supplying generic drugs for
communicable diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, which is a public health
emergency here, to non-communicable diseases, such as heart and cancer
ailments.

=91=92Thailand has led the way for developing countries to use their right,
as it is available in world trade rules,=92=92 Sarah Ireland, director of
the East Asia office the global humanitarian agency Oxfam, said at a
press conference this week. =91=92Thailand has taken a bold step and
resisted a lot of pressure from certain companies.=92=92

Some local trade organisations are even adding their weight to pressure
the health minister to retain the existing provisions. =91=92When you talk
about medicine, you talk about life and death. This is not the case for
normal luxury goods,=92=92 says Buntoon Wongseelashote, vice-chairman of th=
e
Thai Chamber of Commerce. =91=92It is like blackmailing: either you pay up
or you die.=92=92

The country=92s efforts to care for its people living with HIV and AIDS
have been pivotal in shaping such views. Mongkol=92s decision to issue a
CL for one second-line drug for HIV/AIDS has meant that 10,000 Thais who
need the cheaper medication have access to it. Currently, an estimated
140,000 Thais receive first-line ant-retroviral (ARV) drugs out of the
600,000 people infected with HIV. Since the pandemic was detected here
in the early 1980s, some 300,000 people have died due to AIDS.

In early February, even the World Health Organisation reminded Chiya,
the minister, that he is out of step with international trends.
Following a visit by a seven-member team, the Geneva-based health body
issued a 31-page report about TRIPS =91=92flexibilities=92=92 in Thailand,
saying that the WTO rules offer a range of options for developing
countries to pursue =91=92to improve access to medicines.=92=92

=91=92The use of compulsory licences and government-use provisions to
improve access to medicines is one of several cost-containment
mechanisms that may be useful for patented essential medicines not
affordable to the people or to public health insurance schemes,=92=92 it ad=
ded.

(END/2008)

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