Nimit Tien-Udom, director of the Aids Access Foundation, said Aids patients feared that if the complaint was accepted, it could disrupt the Health Ministry's move to enforce compulsory licensing, which would benefit people with HIV/Aids.

The department is considering whether to accept the petition from drug manufacturers or not. It will ask the Patent Committee, which drug makers are members of, to consider if the Health Ministry has the authority to impose compulsory licensing.

Nimit said: "Patients that need to use those specialised drugs hope to access them with lower prices and enforcing compulsory licensing will encourage them to reach it."

HIV patient had to spend about Bt20,000 per person a month for special drugs - Bt14,000 of which is paid for the drug Kaletra. But an unlicensed drug cost only Bt4,000.

The Public Health Ministry announced last month a plan to enforce compulsory licensing of Kaletra, a drug used to treat HIV patients, and Plavix, which is used for heart-disease patients. Heart disease is a major cause of death in Thailand.

The ministry implemented the regulation, which relies on international trade protocols sanctioned under the World Trade Organisation. It cited constraints and unfair pricing by the pharma industry as two main reasons for compulsory licensing.

However, the pharmaceutical companies oppose the move.

Tilleke & Gibbins, legal consultants for Merck & Co, an owner of the Efavirenz Aids drug patent, filed a petition to the Intellectual Property Department on whether the Public Health Ministry had breached patent laws.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers' Association of Thailand (PReMA) also issued a statement yesterday against the move, saying it was unprecedented anywhere in the world.

"It is clear that the Thai government has taken a policy decision to use compulsory licences as a tool to negotiate prices that do not recognise the costs associated with developing new and better medicines, PReMA president Teera Chakajnarodom said.

"Individual pharmaceutical companies will certainly consider the very significant risk this policy poses when deciding whether to bring their latest medicines to the Thai market. Far from providing poor patients with the best medicines, the compulsory licence policy might block access to new treatments in Thailand."

Petchanet Pratruangkrai

The Nation