Thailand, big pharma wrangle over cancer drugs

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand is still talking to three major drug firms about cutting the price of certain cancer drugs but might make the medicines itself if it does not receive adequate discounts, a top health official said on Tuesday.

"It will depend on negotiations with drug manufacturers," Siriwat Thiptharadol, secretary general of the Food and Drug Administration, told Reuters.

The Bangkok Post reported that talks about requested price cuts for breast and lung cancer drugs Docetaxel, produced by Sanofi-Aventis, Roche's Erlotinib and Novartis's Letrozole had broken down.

Docetaxel is also known as Taxotere, Erlotinib as Tarceva and Letrozole as Femara.

The newspaper said this made "inevitable" the imposition of a "compulsory license" (CL), under which Thailand would be able to make the drugs itself without worrying about its World Trade Organization patent obligations.

However, Siriwat said the talks were still moving along.

"If they agree to cut the prices further to an affordable level, I think the Health Minister will not need to implement CL," Siriwat said.

Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla, who has already overridden patents on two AIDS drugs and a heart medicine, did not answer his mobile phone.

Novartis' Thailand manager, Sirilak Suteekul, described talks about accessibility to Letrozole in Thailand, where there an estimated 2,000 potential patients, as "very healthy" and nothing out of the ordinary.