[Ip-health] Wall Street Journal Asia editorial: Bangkok's Drug War, Round Two

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

The Wall Street Journal editorial board appears to have a very
selective reading of the TRIPS Agreement.  Article 31 (b) of the TRIPS
Agreement waives the requirement for a WTO Member to make "efforts to
obtain authorization from the right holder on reasonable commercial
terms" in cases of "public non-commercial use" (i.e. government use).

Thiru


<SNIP>

> Mr. Chaiya is worried both about Thai patients' access to new drugs
> and trade sanctions against Thailand for seizing patents. Fair
> enough: The WTO provision Dr. Mongkol used specifies patent seizures
> are allowed only after "efforts to obtain authorization from the
> right holder on reasonable commercial terms and conditions," or in
> cases of "national emergency." It's unclear that Thailand's actions
> fit either circumstance.



>
> Bangkok's Drug War, Round Two
> THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ASIA
> February 27, 2008
>
> Thailand's military government may be gone, but its war on drug
> patents is still very much alive. Just ask the new Health Minister,
> Chaiya Sasomsup, who is thinking about restoring intellectual
> property rights to their rightful owners -- the pharmaceutical
> companies.
>
> Mr. Chaiya, who took office this month, is trying to clean up the
> mess bequeathed by his predecessor, Mongkol na Songkhla. Citing a
> World Trade Organization loophole, Dr. Mongkol seized patents on
> Merck's HIV/AIDS drug Efavirenz in 2006. In 2007, he took another
> HIV/AIDS patent -- Abbott Laboratory's Kaletra -- and Sanofi-
> Aventis's patent for a heart drug, Plavix. His last act before
> leaving office last month was to sign an order to seize four cancer
> drug patents: two from Novartis, one from Sanofi-Aventis, and one
> from Roche.
>
> Mr. Chaiya is worried both about Thai patients' access to new drugs
> and trade sanctions against Thailand for seizing patents. Fair
> enough: The WTO provision Dr. Mongkol used specifies patent seizures
> are allowed only after "efforts to obtain authorization from the
> right holder on reasonable commercial terms and conditions," or in
> cases of "national emergency." It's unclear that Thailand's actions
> fit either circumstance.
>
> But woe be to Mr. Chaiya to utter such heresy in Thailand, where
> nonprofit groups such as Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders have
> inculcated the public with scare stories about how Big Pharma has it
> in for Thai consumers. The NGO packhounds immediately flooded the
> Thai media with scare stories about Mr. Chaiya's proposal, forcing
> him to do a political backstep last week and say compulsory
> licensing policy has been "maintained." The matter is still under
> review.
>
> What's missing here is the other side of the argument. Many drug
> companies tier their pricing, charging developed countries more and
> developing countries such as Thailand, less. Thailand also faces a
> range of delivery problems that raise the ultimate cost of drugs to
> consumers, including high taxes on imports. Not least, seizing
> patents also puts patients at risk of importing nonbranded, lower-
> quality drugs.
>
> Mr. Chaiya's job is to look after the health of the Thai people, not
> the political motivations of NGOs. It's clear what serves Thais
> best: drug companies that are incentivized, through the profit
> motive, to research and develop new drugs.
>

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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
thiru@keionline.org


Tel: +41 22 791 6727
Mobile: +41 76 508 0997