[Ip-health] WSJ: Thai Ministry to Recommend Ignoring Patents on Cancer Drugs

[Judit Rius Sanjuan]

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Thai Ministry to Recommend Ignoring Patents on Cancer Drugs
By NICHOLAS ZAMISKA
March 10, 2008 2:42 p.m.

HONG KONG -- Thailand's new health minister announced Monday that he
would urge the Thai government to continue to ignore patents on
several cancer drugs, disappointing big pharmaceutical companies that
had hoped Bangkok might roll back a policy of overriding patents in
the name of public health.

The drugs' makers include Roche Holding AG and Novartis of Switzerland
and Sanofi-Aventis of France.

Suphan Srithamma, a spokesman for the Thai health ministry, said that
Minister Chaiya Sasomsup has decided to support the previous
government's decision to ignore four cancer drug patents in a bid to
cut the cost of medicines for the Thai people. The health ministry
will make its recommendation to the Thai cabinet Tuesday, according to
Dr. Suphan.

Thailand's previous health minister, Mongkol na Songkhla, decided in
early January to issue compulsory licenses for four drugs: Novartis's
imatinib, also known as Gleevec; Novartis's breast cancer drug
letrozole, whose brand name is Femara; Sanofi-Aventis's docetaxel,
marketed as Taxotere and used to fight lung and breast cancer; and
Roche's erlotinib, whose trade name is Tarceva.

Novartis proposed that same month to offer Gleevec free of charge to
poor Thai patients, possibly making a compulsory license unnecessary,
according to the ministry of health. A Novartis spokeswoman wasn't
available for comment.

Martina Rupp, a spokeswoman for Roche, based in Basel, said the Swiss
company's Thai subsidiary is currently in talks with the government
"to support greater access to medicines for Thai patients." Ms. Rupp
added that Roche "has been, and always will be, open to discussion and
dialogue with the appropriate authorities."

Jean-Marc Podvin, a spokesman for Sanofi-Aventis in Paris, said that
his company hasn't yet received definitive word from the Thai
government, but that "we still remain optimistic" about the
negotiations. Mr. Podvin added that Sanofi has "some concerns about
the quality of the generic" version of docetaxel, which had world-wide
sales of =801.87 billion in 2007, that would be used to replace Sanofi's
drug in Thailand.

Teera Chakajnarodom, president of the Pharmaceutical Research and
Manufacturers Association--the multinational drug industry's trade
group in Bangkok, which counts among its members the three European
drug companies whose patents are at stake--condemned the Thai health
minister's move.

"This is not good for the country. The image of Thailand will drop
further," he said. "They should bring back the image of Thailand as a
country that respects" intellectual-property rights.

Ever since a bloodless military coup in Thailand in September 2006,
the military-installed government had been battling big pharmaceutical
companies, threatening to sidestep their patents on drugs for AIDS and
other diseases if they didn't drop the price of their medications. The
Thai government argued that since the country's poor population
couldn't afford the lifesaving drugs, and the government didn't have
sufficient funds to cover their cost, drug companies should put public
health before profit and cut the cost of the medications.

The drug companies argued that they had already made price concessions
and needed to profit from their inventions to maintain the incentive
to innovate. After the country's democratic elections last December,
which ushered in a new government, hopes were raised that the new
officials would soften the country's hardball tactics, which some
within the international drug industry had feared might encourage
other developing nations to follow suit and ignore drug patents.

Although members of Thailand's new government worried that the country
could face harsh action from the U.S. government unless they rescinded
the compulsory licenses, U.S. officials familiar with the situation
say there wasn't any plan to retaliate against Thailand.

--James Hookway in Bangkok contributed to this article.

Write to Nicholas Zamiska at nicholas.zamiska@wsj.com

Judit Rius Sanjuan
Attorney at Knowledge Ecology International
www.keionline.org / www.cptech.org
Phone: +1.202.332.2670, x18
Email: judit.rius@keionline.org