MSF Rallies Support for Thailand’s Compulsory Licensing on AIDS Drugs

MSF rallies support for Thailand’s compulsory licensing on AIDS drugs

BANGKOK, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) — The Medecin Sans Frontieres (MSF)/ Doctors Without Borders (DWB) on Friday voiced its strong support for the Thai government’s recent decision to issue compulsory licenses for production of three drugs for AIDS and cardiovascular treatment.

The MSF, at a news conference at Bangkok, invited international health activists and law experts to rally support for the Thailand ‘s move, which they maintained were fully compatible with international trade rules, patent laws and public health principles set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other groups on improving access of medical treatment to people in need.

Dr. Carlos Correa, an intellectual property rights expert from Argentina, said that the WTO’s Doha Declaration in 2001 have stated that the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) should not prevent members from taking measures to protect public heath, which guarantees governments’ right to issue compulsory licenses, among other measures, to reduce price of patented-drugs for epidemics that threatens national health.

The Thai government on last November announced it intended to issue a compulsory license for imported and local-produced generic version of Efavirenz, a key anti-retroviral drug, and later in January this year declared a similar move regarding another AIDS drug Kaletra, and Plavix, the blockbuster anti-clotting agent.

Thailand insists the move would benefit more than 500,000 people living with HIV and some 200,000 patients in the kingdom who have blood clotting problems resulted from heart diseases, which can be cured by Plavix, by improving their access to lower- priced generic version of the drugs, whose patents are owned by American-based pharmaceutical companies.

Despite angry reactions from international pharmaceutical companies, who have pressured Thailand through their governments, by demanding negotiations on the patent-breaking acts before putting the compulsory licensing acts into practice, the moves were applauded by health activists and aid agencies.

James Love from Knowledge Ecology International of the U.S.A argued that it is not fair that the annual average income of U.S nationals were 16 times that of Thailand, while the prices Thai patients pay for the heart disease drugs are only 50 percent on average cheaper than those in the U.S.

On the other hand, Love said, his country was in fact the one who has used the drug compulsory licensing practice to the most extent, and, to his knowledge, no negotiations had ever been conducted by the U.S. government with pharmaceutical companies before the licenses were in place.

In that case, “why can’t we learn from the U.S.?” said Martin Khor, director of Third World Network, Malaysia, “There is no need for Thailand, or any other developing country, to negotiate beforehand with the foreign drug companies.”

He added that Thailand was not the first one in developing countries to issue the compulsory license for drugs after the Doha declaration, with Malaysia and Indonesia having successfully conducted the same acts in the Southeast Asia.

Dr. Ellen Hoen from the MSF, Geneva, called on the WHO and other international organizations to stand up to voice its support for and pressure the world’s pharmaceutical companies to accept Thailand’s move to improve access of medicines to patients. After all, she said, “The role of WHO is to protect health, but not to protect commercial or political interests.”

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