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 16, 2004
Apiradee Treerutkuarkul and Preeyanat Phanayanggoor
Business organisations, women's groups, gay people, intravenous drug users and labour groups gathered yesterday to re-draft their closing statement. They want more financial support for tackling Aids.
Critics have saved their strongest words for drugs giants, for refusing to cut prices of anti-retroviral drugs. A group of 100 protesters stormed exhibition booths put up by Abbott Laboratories, Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer and Roche. Accusing the companies of greed, they tore down posters, and sprayed and splashed colours on the booths.
The protest drew attention from bystanders but drug firms are getting used to the abuse and had closed their exhibitions before protesters showed up.
David Reddy, HIV franchise leader for Roche, which makes brandname products Fuzeon and Nelfinavir, said such protests were common at Aids conferences, but unnecessary and disappointing nonetheless.
A productive partnership between private and community sectors would be more useful than protest action, he said.
Pfizer chairman and CEO Henry McKinnell said patents and intellectual property rights were still needed to ensure continued development of HIV/Aids medicines.
Intellectual property was a vital resource to find new treatments and a cure for Aids patients, as patients built up immunity to existing drugs, he said.
The US has also come under criticism for focusing financial support on the administration's programme President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, rather than contributing through the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The Thai government was also under fire. Activists want it to provide clean syringes, methadone and a harm-reduction programme for intravenous drug users. But Public Health Ministry spokeswoman Nittaya Chanruang Mahaphol said the government would have to survey public opinion on whether friendlier measures were needed for drug users. "The government cannot do anything much if the public does not support the idea of providing syringes and methadone," she said.
Activists say the government's plan to forge an alliance with Brazil, China, Nigeria, Russia and Ukraine to exercise compulsory licensing may improve access to drugs, but are sceptical about whether it will work. They said the government may need to change the Patent Act to comply with an agreement on intellectual property rights reached by World Trade Organisation members.
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