Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - May 2, 2006
Achara Ashayagachat
The letter has been signed by prominent figures, including the director of the Thai Red Cross Aids Research center, Khon Kaen University's Faculty of Medicine lecturers, Mahidol University's paediatricians, former senator Jon Ungphakorn and Kamol Uppakaew, president of the People Living with HIV/Aids Network. It was sent at the end of April to the US firm.
But it received a lukewarm response from the US manufacturer who said Abbot Laboratories would sell the new version of the second-line fixed dose combination lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r), marketed as Kaletra, in only the least developed countries such as those in Africa.
The company did not say how soon the drug could be registered in Thailand to replace its old version, which costs the Public Health Ministry (US$2,700) 108,000 baht per Aids patient a year.
The price Thailand has paid in recent years is even higher than Brazil has forked out to the American firm at (US$1,380) 55,200 baht per patient a year.
The new version of Kaletra will be sold in poor countries at only 20,000 baht, according to Medicins Sans Frontieres.
The US Food and Drug Administration approved in October last year a new version of LPV/r that has critically important advantages for patients in developing countries - a lower pill count, down from six to four per day, storage without refrigeration and no dietary restrictions.
Abbot has gradually recalled its old version from the American and European markets, supplying the new version instead, but the firm seems to be using Thailand as a dumping ground for the old drug version, MSF said.
There are currently 82,000 Aids patients with access to anti-retroviral drugs under the Public Health Ministry's programme and an estimated 8,000 patients who need to change from the basic cocktail to the LPV/r cocktail due to drug resistance.
Meanwhile, the National Health Security Office urged new HIV/Aids patients with 30-baht gold cards to register at services centres near their homes to continuously receive counsel and drugs under the 30-baht universal health care scheme.
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