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 20, 2008
Apiradee Treerutkuarkul
Mr Chaiya said permanent secretaries of the commerce, foreign affairs and public health ministries had concluded that the ministerial announcements on four cancer drugs made by former public health minister Mongkol na Songkhla were legitimate and could not be lifted.
Although Mr Chaiya could not change the policy, a source said the government might take no further action under CL to bypass the patents of cancer drugs.
The meeting of the three ministries was ordered by Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej last week to decide if it should go ahead with the previous government's scheme to break the cancer drug patents.
Dr Mongkol signed four ministerial announcements on Jan 4 to individually license Letrozole, a breast cancer medicine produced by Novartis, breast and lung cancer drug Docetaxel made by Sanofi Aventis, Roche's Erlotinib, used for treating lung, pancreatic and ovarian cancer, and Imatinib of Novartis used on people with leukaemia.
But he struck a deal with Novartis as the patent holder agreed to supply its medicine free to more than 900 patients under its philanthropic programme.
In a forum about Thai policy on CL yesterday, Foundation for Consumers manager Saree Ongsomwang said health activists and networks of cancer patients and people living with HIV/Aids were monitoring government actions on CL.
"We will definitely not agree with the government if the CL policy for cancer drugs has to be shelved or delayed until the US Trade Representative finishes reviewing the list of countries receiving export benefits from the US Generalised System of Preferences in April," she said.
Pongthep Wongwatcharapaiboon, a rural doctor at Na Noi hospital in Nan province, said the poor would be most affected if the government did not extend access to cancer drugs through CL.
Cancer drugs were very expensive and available only at private hospitals and large medical schools in urban areas.
The lack of financial support from the National Health Security Office, which runs the universal healthcare scheme, made it impossible for the 626 community hospitals across the country to treat cancer patients in remote areas.
Sarah Ireland, an Oxfam regional director for East Asia, urged the government to continue with CL for cancer drugs and other life-saving medicines so that poor people would have greater access to them. Thailand should be a leader for low and middle-income countries in exercising its flexibility within the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) to widen public access to these medicines, she added.
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