[Ip-health] Letter to Editor from Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, concerning "Bangkok's Drug War, Round Two"

[Kannikar KIJTIWATCHAKUL]

Dear Editor,

I am one of the 'packhounds' that you accuse of
spreading scare stories in your editorial (Bangkok's
Drug War, Round Two) of 27 February 2008.  My
organization, which consists of people living with
HIV/AIDS in Thailand, supports access to necessary
drugs for all Thais, not just the rich minority that
can pay the prices charged by pharmaceutical companies
enjoying monopoly patents.

Your article is sadly misinformed.  What you call the
'loophole' of compulsory licensing (which is what has
kept some of my friends alive) is in fact a piece of
international law that was heavily negotiated and
agreed by all member countries of the WTO.  The Thai
government did not 'seize' patents; it used the same
legal right that many other countries have used,
including the United States, whose threats of trade
sanctions so worry the new Thai Minister of Public
Health.

You claim that the need for access to life-saving HIV,
heart disease and cancer drugs is not a clear
emergency in Thailand.  Cancel the free distribution
of drugs made possible through compulsory licences and
thousands of Thai will be dead in weeks.  The
emergency is clear enough to them.

And you claim that 'the other side of the argument' is
'missing'.  Given the intense lobbying of the new
Minister by what you call 'Big Pharma', supported by
the US government and enjoying far richer resources
than my organization can muster, this is hard to
swallow.

It took my organization and our allies (in the
government, the media, and academia, as well as in
other NGOs) a long, long time to get our government to
exercise its legal right to compulsory licensing.
Please do not misrepresent our case, bully our
government or call us names.

Virat Purahong,
The chairperson of Thai Network of People Living with
HIV/AIDS (TNP+)
494 Soi Nakornthai 11
Ladproa 101 Road,
Klongjan, Bangkapi
Bangkok, Thailand 10240
Tel (66)2377-5065 Fax (66) 2377-9719
 E-mail : tnpth@thaiplus.net



Kannikar KIJTIWATCHAKUL (Kar)
Access to Essential Medicine Campaigner
MSF Belgium - Thailand Mission,
522 Mooban Nakorn Thai 14,
Ladphrao Soi 101/1,
Bangkapi, Bangkok 10240
Tel (+66) 2370 3087
Fax (+66) 2731 1432
Mobile (+66) 85-070-8954


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