New Thai govt to review drug patent plan
By Nopporn Wong-Anan
BANGKOK, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Thailand, which has stunned major drug makers by overriding patents, will review the compulsory licences announced by the previous military-appointed government, Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsap said on Thursday.
Chaiya, speaking to reporters as a new government began work after a December election, said a committee would review whether the licences on four cancer drugs, two HIV-AIDS medicines and a heart treatmemt complied with Thai laws. "It might have been a politically correct decision, but not legally correct," Chaiya said of the programme, praised by health activists and denounced by drug firms, which allows Thailand to make or buy cheap, copycat versions of patented drugs.
The committee would comprise officials from the Health, Commerce and Foreign Ministries, Chaiya said without giving further details.
"I can assure you that we won't lift the licences now. My policy is to review it and find out what caused it and tackle those causes," he said.
Commerce and Foreign Ministry officials have worried about the policy's impact on relations with key trading partners, Europe and the United States, home to several pharmaceutical giants.
Drug firms and their allies have accused Bangkok of stealing intellectual property, while the United States put Thailand on its "priority watch list", citing weaker respect for patents.
Under World Trade Organisation rules, countries can issue a compulsory licence to make or buy generic versions of patented drugs deemed critical to public health as long as the medicines are meant for domestic use.
Former Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla overrode Merck's (MRK.N) AIDS drug Efavirenz in late 2006, arguing that Thailand could not afford patented drugs for a national health plan that covers about 80 percent of the country's 63 million people.
A few months later he did the same on a Sanofi-Aventis (SASY.PA) heart medicine and an AIDS drug made by Abbott Laboratories (ABT.N), which refused to register several new medicines in Thailand. More recently, it targeted Letrozole, a breast cancer medicine made by Novartis AG (NOVN.VX), the breast and lung cancer drug Docetaxel by Sanofi-Aventis and Roche's (ROG.VX) Erlotinib, used for treating lung, pancreatic and ovarian cancer.
A licence issued on a leukaemia drug, Glivec, was cancelled last week after its maker, Novartis, agreed to supply it free to hundreds of Thai patients.
Other drug companies appear to be betting that Thailand's new cabinet, packed with supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in a bloodless 2006 coup, will take a pro-business view on the patent issue.
Thailand's Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association said last week the new government "understands that collaboration with all stakeholders in the health sector is needed to address the real issues affecting the quality of healthcare and development of innovation-based industries". ($1= 32.94 Baht) (Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by Michael Battye)
