Aid groups urge Thailand to continue compulsory licensing

"We call on Thailand to show global leadership in this important initiative," said Sarah Ireland, Oxfam regional director for East Asia. "Thailand has taken a bold step and resisted a lot of pressure from pharmaceutical companies and I think other countries in this region are finding it much more difficult to resist the pressure."

Thailand, under its previous military-appointed government, irked US pharmaceutical companies by issuing compulsory licences for two anti-viral drugs used to treat HIV/Aids cases under the country's universal health scheme in November 2006.

The previous health minister, Mongkol Na Songkhla, last month issued another batch of compulsory licenses for four cancer medicines, but the newly elected minister Chaiya Saisomsab, upon entering office on February 6, halted the controversial patent-breaking licensing process on the argument that it would endanger Thailand's trade relations with the US.

Under the WTO's TRIPS Agreement compulsory licencing allows countries to introduce cheap generic copies of patented medicines to treat a medical emergency.

Thailand has justified its use of compulsory licensing on the argument that it is necessary to meet its universal health scheme for the poor, which promises subsidized treatment for more than half of the Thai population.

Thailand has an estimated 600,000 people living with HIV/Aids, of whom some 120,000 now have access to cheap versions of efavirenz, an Aids medicine made by US pharmaceutical giant Merck) and Kalentra, an Aids medicine sold by USA's Abbott, noted Oxfam's HIV/Aids program director Chalermsak Kittitrakul.

Thousands of Thailand's poor will have no access to life-saving cancer drugs if the new minister Chaiya halts the compulsory licensing process and refuses to provide greater subsidies for the universal health scheme.

"The problem in Thailand is we have a huge gap between the rich and the poor," said Doctor Pongthep Wongwatcharapaiboon, a representative of Thailand's rural doctors who work in 726 government-run hospitals and clinics nationwide servicing the poor. "The rich can afford to go to private hospitals and buy medicines but the poor cannot."

Oxfam and Medecins Sans Frontier are worried that if Thailand backtracks on its compulsory licensing stance for cancer drugs, it will undermine other developing countries' efforts to reduce mecine costs for the poor through the legal WTO-backed mechanism.

The Philippines, for instance, has drafted legislation that will allow it of use the WTO TRIPS Agreement, if passed.

"We fear that if Thailand were to revoke the licenses if would severely counter this legislation, and drug firms will block the bill," said Ireland.

Meanwhile, a spokesman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, a private-sector association, knocked the new health minister's argument that compulsory licensing will threaten Thailand's trade relations with the US, a major importer of Thai goods.

The US last year put Thailand on its "priority watch list," under its GSP (Generalized System of Preferences) which allows low tariffs on certain exports from Thailand.

But Buntoon Wongseelashote, a spokesman for the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said the downgrading was not because of Thailand's compulsory licensing policy.

"The main issue is the fact that we did not enforce our laws against the infringement on intellectual property rights of US-made software and DVDs," said Buntoon.

He noted that pirated copies of US software, movies and CDs were  costing US companies about 400 millions dollars a year in lost revenues, whereas compulsory licensing has cost two pharmaceutical giants less than 20 million dollars.//dpa