Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - July 11, 2004
Apiradee Treerutkuarkul
Tongchai Tavichachart, managing director of the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO), said the proposal had been sent to cabinet.
Compulsory licensing allows government drug agencies or private companies to override patents and produce low-cost, generic versions of a patented drug, while the patent holders are paid royalty fees. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has expressed interest in exploring the possibility of using it to improve access to treatment.
The GPO, which is under the Public Health Ministry, is looking at producing the two drugs - Kaletra and Effavirenz - which can cost patients about 17,000 baht per month
It now makes GPOVIR, a cocktail drug, which cost patients 1,200 baht per month.
If approved, the agency could produce generic versions of those drugs, and cut 80% from their costs by using compulsory licensing, said Dr Tongchai.
Patients suffering side-effects from GPOVIR would not have to spend more on the imported patented drugs, he said.
A new drug is also important for patients taking GPOVIR because they could face drug resistance after a few years. Somyos Kittimankong, the Disease Control Department's Aids Division chief, however, said the government should prepare a budget of up to 40 billion baht for importing drugs to help Aids patients.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation plans to bring a team of experts in September to study Thailand's progress in curbing HIV and to press ahead with its "3 by 5" programme - a project to increase access to anti-retroviral drug treatment to three million people living with Aids by 2005.
Only 440,000 patients are now getting the treatment, but Jack Chow, the WHO assistant director-general on HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, is still optimistic, saying progress has been made.
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