The state-run Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) may seek Bt1 billion in damages from a United States lobby group for allegedly defaming it and a well-known HIV/Aids drug.

The GPO has already sought criminal-defamation action against USA for Innovation. The group lobbies for US pharmaceutical companies.

The alleged defamation is included in newspaper advertisements the group published earlier this month in Thailand in The Nation and Bangkok Post, and the Post's Thai-language sister title Post Today.

The full-page advertisement alleged Thailand's move to invoke compulsory licensing to get around drug patents would hurt "the poor and sick of Thailand".

It said most Thais with HIV/Aids would "not have access to the world's best medicines" but would be treated with locally made drugs, such as the Aids drug GPO-Vir which it said a Mahidol University study had found to have a resistance rate of 39.6 per cent to 58 per cent.

GPO-Vir is manufactured by the GPO, and the state agency claims a resistance rate of 15 per cent for the drug.

Its board chairman Dr Wichai Chokewiwat said the Bt1-billion damages claim was accordance with the Civil Code and represented the cost of an alleged civil wrong.

Wichai said the GPO generated annual revenues of Bt5 billion from selling GPO-Vir both domestically and overseas, including developing countries like Nigeria and Burma.

"The ad shook patients' confidence in our drug and damaged the reputation of the GPO," he asserted.

However, Wichai did not specify when the GPO would file the civil action, saying it was waiting for police to identify the names of the people at USA for Innovation to cite as respondents.

Wichai will ask the US Embassy for these. Even though these people may live in the US, Wichai believes they can be tried in the Kingdom because the alleged defamation was committed here.

Meanwhile, the public health minister said Thailand would consider buying drugs covered by patents if they could be purchased for no more than 5 per cent above prices for generic versions.

Mongkol na Songkhla returned to Thailand late Thursday from the US. He said although the country had invoked compulsory licensing on three life-saving treatments, negotiations with their manufacturers were still possible.

"If patent holders cut their prices to no more than 5 per cent above generic alternatives declared under compulsory licensing, we will consider buying the originals," he said.

The three drugs are efavirenz made by Merck, lopinavir/ritonavir made by Abbott Laboratories and a heart-disease medicine made by Sanofi-Aventis.

The ministry's drug-price negotiation team has held three rounds of talks with the companies, but none has agreed to lower prices to the level desired by the ministry.

Mongkol has spend the past two weeks in the US negotiating with drug-makers and explaining the government's decision to invoke compulsory licensing.

Though saying he "achieved nothing" from the trip, Mongkol said there were positive signs and Abbott had officially submitted a new price for lopinavir/ritonavir, down more than half its original US$2,200 (Bt76,000) per patient per year to $1,000.

However, yearly treatment with a generic version costs just $695 per person.

Duangkamol  Sajirawattanakul

The Nation