Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2008. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - June 6, 2008
Apiradee Treerutkuarkul
The "action plan" which the negotiating team led by commerce permanent secretary Siriphol Yodmuangcharoen intends to put to Washington is likely to involve the CL policy to bypass patents on essential drugs, Nimit Tienudom, director of the Aids Access Foundation, said yesterday.
The trip is scheduled for next Tuesday.
"This is very suspicious," Mr Nimit said. "We don't know whether the government will eventually trade off the compulsory licensing policy for upgrading of Thailand from the US Priority Watch List to a better trade status."
Health activists and pharmaceutical academics would take action if negotiations affect the public's interests and its access to affordable medicines.
Mr Nimit was responding to the chief of the Intellectual Property Rights Department, Puangrat Asavapisit, who said the government would outline an "action plan" to the US Trade Representative (USTR) focusing on a serious crackdown on intellectual property violations.
Thailand is one of nine countries on Washington's watch list because of concerns over intellectual property rights problems. The compulsory licensing of Aids and heart drugs by the previous government is cited as possible grounds for putting Thailand in the top category of offenders, even though it was legitimately done.
Mr Nimit said Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's swift appointment of a committee to review the compulsory licensing of essential drugs last month followed a request from the USTR.
The review committee includes representatives of the Commerce, Foreign and Finance ministries, pharmaceutical companies and patients.
The Department of Intellectual Property Rights had already revised the Patents Act, including an alteration to Article 7 to allow "evergreening patents" on plants and animals, Mr Nimit said.
Evergreening allows the patent holder to artificially extend a market monopoly by declaring new chemical substances, very often only a minor modification.
"These moves are part of the US proposal on the protection of intellectual property rights, which are very similar to the still-to-be concluded Thai-US free trade agreement," Mr Nimit said.
"Whatever the government is doing it should be more concerned about problems which affect 66 million Thais, than thinking only about our trade status," he added.
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