Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday December 22, 1999
Sutin Wannabovorn
About 100 protesters, wearing yellow T-shirts, called on the government to issue a compulsory licence to allow cheap local production of the drug didanosine which is produced and marketed by U.S. drug giant Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY - news).
They erected tents and vowed to continue their protest around the clock until Friday.
"We are demanding the government impose a compulsory licence to give the Public Health Ministry the right to produce the essential drug didanosine," said Paisal Tanhood, chairman of the HIV Infection Network, which has more than 20,000 members.
Didanosine, also known as ddI, is one of a two-drug anti-retroviral cocktail prescribed for Thais with HIV to help them live longer.
But campaigners say the vast majority of those infected cannot afford the treatment because of the high price of ddI.
Thailand's Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) began producing the other drug -- AZT, or zidovudine -- in 1995 at about a quarter of the price of the imported version.
Compulsory licensing would allow the local production didanosine on payment of a royalty, but no developing country has yet taken the radical step, fearing trade retaliation by the United States to protect the interests of drug companies.
DRUG TOO EXPENSIVE FOR MOST THAIS
In Thailand, ddI costs about 49 baht ($1.25) per tablet, putting the monthly cost of the two-drug cocktail in a country where the minimum monthly wage is 5,400 ($138), at about 8,000 baht ($205).
Activists say Bristol-Myers has offered to cut ddI's price, but not to the extent local production would eventually allow.
A ministry spokesman said talks were continuing between the GPO and Bristol-Myers but he declined to elaborate.
Bristol-Myers officials were not available for comment on the licensing issue. Paisal, 34, who was diagnosed HIV positive eight years ago, told Reuters he was unable to afford ddI, but his wife was using it free under a trial programme at a government hospital.
"Only five percent of about one million people with HIV have access to ddI because it's so expensive, so cutting the price a bit is not a good solution for under-privileged people," he said.
Activists said making ddI in Thailand was the best solution, but they doubted the government would be bold enough to stand up to the threat of U.S. pressure. "DdI is the hope for those with HIV, but I don't think Thailand will dare take the radical action in colliding head-on with the United States because of the fear of trade retaliation," Saree Aongsomwang of the Foundation for Consumers, told Reuters.
International pressure groups, including the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize winning aid group Medicins Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders), have been urging Thailand to make a stand on the issue.
They say Bangkok should be emboldened after U.S. President Bill Clinton pledged on World AIDS Day on December 1 a change in U.S. trade policy to support greater worldwide access to lifesaving medicines.
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