Bangkok Post - May 4, 2007
Apiradee Treerutkuarkul

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont is confident the government can explain to the world why compulsory licensing of patented foreign medicines is necessary.

The government also claims to have received many messages of support from foreigners who support the policy.

"We stand by what we have done, and we can explain our actions to the world community," he said.

Thai officials needed to work with US officials and resolve the dispute over the decision by the US Trade Representative Office to downgrade Thailand to a country deemed to have poor intellectual property protection.

Gen Surayud said the Commerce Ministry would handle copyright and intellectual property violations.

The need to uncover any link between ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the USTR's decision was secondary to explaining the need to use compulsory licensing.

Public Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla said he had received more than 200 letters and email messages from foreigners showing their support for Thailand's compulsory licensing of generic versions of the Aids medications Efavirenz and Kaletra and the heart drug Plavix.

The minister insisted the government acted with good intentions, of giving the poor access to inexpensive and quality medical treatment.

He would travel to the US along with Vichai Chokewiwat, chairman of the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation board, who would sign a contract with the foundation run by former US president Bill Clinton.

The Clinton Foundation would help Thailand negotiate with Aids drug makers in the US to ensure that the price of medicines was affordable for HIV/Aids patients.

Council for National Security chairman Gen Sonthi Boonyaratkalin said he had no information about Mr Thaksin's supposed link to Thailand's downgrading by the USTR.

He also rejected a US critic's comment that Thailand cannot afford to buy Aids drugs because much of the national budget had gone on funding the army.

Gen Sonthi said the army had its own annual budget, and had not taken other agencies' money.

Health activists yesterday protested outside the US embassy against Washington's decision to put Thailand on the priority watch list.

Virat Poorahong, leading the Thai Network of People Living with HIV/Aids, believed the US move was in response to the government's enforcement of compulsory licensing, even though the US ambassador had said compulsory licensing was just one concern, but not the main reason.

However, an expert on international trade law at the University of Wollongong in Australia, Jakkrit Kuanpoth, said the government should not be too worried about the priority watch list.

It was less serious than the priority foreign countries list under the US Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act, which provides for trade retaliation measures, he said.

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