Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - June 2, 2007
Kultida Samabuddhi
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) secretary-general Siriwat Tiptaradol said after meeting representatives of MSD Thailand, a subsidiary of Merck & Co Inc, that he would soon discuss the free treatment offer for child Aids patients with local medical experts.
If approved, it would be the first time that Thailand would be using a liquid second-line Aids drug to treat child patients, he said.
"As the firm has refused to further reduce the price of Efavirenz from 762 baht per patient per month, they are now trying to make up for that by offering this syrup for HIV-positive children instead," said Dr Siriwat, who also chairs a committee negotiating a reduction in the price of patented drugs.
According to the Aids Access Foundation, there are around 8,000 children with the infection in the country.
Several rounds of price negotiations between the committee and giant foreign multi-national drug companies have already taken place since the government issued compulsory licenses for three Aids and heart disease drugs, including Abbott Laboratories' Kaletra, Merck's Efavirenz, and Sanofi-aventis' Plavix.
Breaking drug patents will empower the government to manufacture or import generic versions of the medicines to improve access for the poor to expensive life-saving drugs.
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