[Ip-health] IP-Watch: Thailand Avoids Compulsory Licence On Cancer Drug; 3 More Drugs Undecided

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-trackback.php?p=3D906


31 January 2008
Thailand Avoids Compulsory Licence On Cancer Drug; 3 More Drugs
Undecided

By Sinfah Tunsarawuth for Intellectual Property Watch
BANGKOK - The Thai government has decided not to use its right to a
compulsory licence on a Novartis cancer treatment drug after the
company agreed to provide for free its patented drugs for cancer
patients under a major government-sponsored health insurance programme.

However, current Public Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla has not
yet decided whether he would impose compulsory licences on three other
cancer treatment drugs, said Vichai Chokvivat, who chairs a
government=92s committee on implementing compulsory licences, in an
interview with Intellectual Property Watch. Vichai said the minister
could make the decision in the next few days.

Thailand has a new government after the general election on 23
December. The new prime minister is still assembling a new cabinet
including a new public health minister. New cabinet ministers can
officially take office only after being sworn in by Thailand=92s monarch
King Bhumibol Adulyadej, which could take a few more days.

Vichai said Novartis, which holds the patent on imatinib for treating
leukemia and gastrointestinal stromal tumors and markets it as Glivec,
has agreed to provide for free its patented drugs to cancer patients
under Thailand=92s universal health insurance programme, which benefits
about 48 million people.

Vichai said each year about 1,000 patients would need imatinib, whose
patented version costs 3,600 Thai baht (about US$109) for a 400
miligramme pill. Usually, a patient will take the drug one pill per
day every day, which costs about 1.31 million baht (about $39,800) a
year.

Had Thailand imposed a compulsory licence on imatinib, the generic
version imported from India would cost 150 baht ($4.50) per pill.

A press statement issued by the Ministry of Public Health and posted
on its website said Public Health Minister Mongkol decided not to
impose the government=92s right over the Novartis drug after the Swiss
company agreed that a larger number of people will benefit from its
free drugs.

Negotiations with the drug company, which lasted for months, have
focused on the level of household income of the patients who shall
benefit from Novartis=92 free drugs. Novartis had earlier said patients
whose household income did not exceed three times a country=92s per
capita income, or about 300,000 baht ($9,100) in case of Thailand,
would receive its free drugs, a standard the company applies
internationally for its free drug programme.

Under such terms, it meant about 10 million people of the 48 million
under the universal health insurance programme would not benefit from
the free drugs, Siriwat Tiptaradol, secretary general of Thailand=92s
Food and Drug Administration who led Thailand=92s negotiations with
foreign patent owners of cancer treatment drugs, said in a separate
interview. =93That is unacceptable for us,=94 Siriwat said.

Novartis then agreed to raise the beneficiary household income level
to 1.7 million baht ($51,500), which will cover all the 48 million
people.

Siriwat said Novartis (Thailand) has said even for patients whose
household income exceeds 1.7 million baht, they would still receive
free drugs from the company.

Mongkol has not yet decided on three more cancer drugs that the
government has been negotiating for price cut along with imatinib of
Novartis. The three include docetaxel for treating lung and breast
cancer, which is marketed by Sanofi-Aventis as Taxotere; letrozole for
breast cancer, which is marketed by Novartis as Femara; and erlotinib
for lung cancer, which is marketed by Roche as Tarceva.

Siriwat told Intellectual Property Watch in November that the three
patent holders had made concessions during the various negotiation
rounds with his committee.

Negotiations on the four cancer treatment drugs are the latest effort
by the Thai government to force price reductions on patented drugs and
avoid compulsory licensing, which allows the government to exercise
its right over the patent owners - either by producing the drugs in
the country itself or importing the generic version from other
countries - to cut prices and make the medicines more available to the
public. The government would provide certain compensation to the
patent owners upon imposing such a measure. Thai government officials
have said India is now the country which provides most of the generic
drugs.

In late 2006, the Thai government, for the first time, announced its
use of compulsory licensing on two patented anti-retroviral drugs for
HIV/AIDS patients (efavirenz, manufactured and marketed by Merck Sharp
and Dohme as Stocrin, and lopinavir/ritonavir, manufactured and
marketed by Abbott Laboratories as Kaletra) and another anti-coagulant
for treating heart disease (clopidogrel, manufactured and marketed by
Sanofi-Aventis as Plavix) (IPW, Public Health, 12 March 2007).


------------------------------------------------------------


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


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