Thailand ‘frees’ 2 more drugs

BANGKOK: Thailand, which has overridden international patents on three drugs in the past year, plans to issue two more local licences this year for copycat versions of medicines, health minister Mongkol na Songkhla said on Monday.

The new licences would be for the country’s top killing diseases, especially cancer, Mongkol told reporters, but declined to name them.

“In the remaining six months I have left, we will do it on the drugs that are needed to save the lives of the poor,” said Mongkol, referring to the term of the interim army-appointed government due to expire after elections in December.

“Altogether, we will impose compulsory licensing on up to five necessary drugs,” said Mongkol, who failed to win a sympathetic ear from trade officials in Washington last week.

Thailand is negotiating with French and American makers of two HIV/AIDS drugs and a heart medicine to lower their prices after Bangkok overrode patents.

The compulsory licensing, which Thailand says is legal under the World Trade Organization’s rules, has drawn flak from global drug makers and Washington, but applause from HIV/AIDS advocacy groups.

Mongkol urged drug companies to charge a range of prices for one medicine so that rich and poor would have the same access to the same drug.

“This is not a threat, but an appeal to the drug companies to have sympathy for the poor. One price for the rich and one price for the poor. At the end, it will be win-win for everyone.”

Mongkol said there was progress in haggling with two makers of the three drugs to get prices down closer to their generic equivalents, but not with Abbott Laboratories , which makes the HIV/AIDS drug Kaletra.

Abbott refused to budge on its offer of $1,000 per patient per year for a heat-stable version of the drug during negotiations with Thai officials this month.

Aluvia is needed badly in tropical Thailand because it does not require refrigeration like Kaletra, eliminating the need for costly cold storage.

Abbott recently cut its price for Kaletra and Aluvia to $1,000 per patient per year in 40 low- and middle-income countries, but Thailand says it is still too expensive.  Mongkol said Thailand would not scrap compulsory licensing on the three drugs even if the patent owners agreed to sell their products at prices close to generic ones because the rules allowed Thailand to buy generic versions.

“We can’t leave generic drugs out of our purchases. Without them, patented drug makers will put price pressure on us again,” Mongkol said.