Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2008. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - February 15, 2008
Tharit Charungvat, the Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman, told the media the permanent secretaries of the three ministries widely discussed the advantages and disadvantages of drug patents during a two-hour meeting at the Foreign Affairs Ministry yesterday.
He refused to reveal the details of the meeting, saying the options and prospective consequences that were narrowed down during the meeting will be sent to the concerned ministers, Mingkwan Saengsuwan, Noppadon Pattama and Chaiya Sasomsab, for consideration next week. He did not say when the meeting will take place.
The ministers' decision will be forwarded to the cabinet for approval, he said.
The meeting venue, originally set for the Commerce Ministry, was changed three times before they decided to meet at the Foreign Affairs Ministry because of a protest by health activists, who have called for the government to keep CL on four cancer drugs.
About 300 health activists and a network of Aids and cancer patients gathered at the Public Health Ministry - the meeting's original venue.
Before attending the meeting, Public Health permanent secretary Prat Boonyawongwirote refused to confirm if former health minister Mongkol na Songkhla approved CL implementation before he left office.
Saree Ongsomwang, the manager of Foundation for Consumers, said she was extremely disappointed with Dr Prat's statement.
"How can a high-ranking official like a permanent secretary say he did not have any information regarding compulsory licensing?" she said. "How can he protect the benefits of patients if he did not have any information at hand to discuss with executive of the commerce and foreign ministries?"
On Jan 4, Dr Mongkol signed four ministerial announcements to license Letrozole, a breast cancer medicine produced by Novartis, the breast and lung cancer drug Docetaxel by Sanofi-Aventis and Roche's Erlotinib, which is used for treating lung, pancreatic and ovarian cancer.
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