Wall Street Journal - March 14, 2007

In the latest news, the Journal reports that Abbott Laboratories has decided not to market any new medicines in Thailand. Abbott will continue to sell drugs currently on sale in the country, but it has withdrawn its applications for other drugs under government review.

This is a big decision for any company, because it means forfeiting a large market and risking some negative publicity. But it is also an entirely rational business decision, after Thailand's military government decided to revoke Abbott's patent for its new blockbuster AIDS drug. In January, Thailand's Ministry of Public Health announced it would issue "compulsory licenses" for medications produced by Abbott and Sanofi-Aventis -- meaning that Thailand will eventually produce generic copies of these drugs. This followed a similar move against Merck in November.

Thai patients will be the losers, at least in the short term, though that is entirely the fault of the Thai government. In the long run, Abbott's withdrawal may have a salutary impact if it demonstrates to Thai officials and other governments that they will pay a price for stealing intellectual property. Drug patents are a globally recognized way to guarantee a return on investment in producing new therapies, and there will be no incentive to innovate if governments can revoke patents with impunity.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government is getting into the mix, albeit a tad late. HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt has finally summoned the energy to lodge a formal protest with Bangkok over remarks by one of its officials that Thailand will arrest foreign nationals in the event of an influenza outbreak. At a January meeting of the executive board of the World Health Organization, Thai representative Dr. Suwit Wibulpolprasert proposed holding Western tourists hostage until Bangkok received flu vaccines.

In a March 7 letter, Mr. Leavitt said Dr. Suwit's comments "appear to contravene the spirit and provisions of the revised International Health Regulations" for how countries cooperate to curb the global spread of disease. Hostage-taking is not among the preferred medical treatments for the flu. Would-be kidnapper Dr. Suwit was also an important voice advocating seizure of the drug patents.

And, incredibly, he and Thailand's Minister for Public Health, Dr. Mongkol na Songkhla, have found supporters in high places in international health organizations. Peter Piot, head of the United Nations joint program on HIV/AIDS, wrote in a December 26 letter to the Minister that Bangkok's decision to retract Merck's HIV/AIDS drug patent was "a good example" of the country's commitment to "provide access" to antiretrovirals and lower the cost of the drugs.

After an initial burst of common sense, even the WHO is now supporting Bangkok's theft. Director-General Margaret Chan, whom these pages praised in January for criticizing Thailand's IP abuse, retracted her statement in a conciliatory letter to the Thai government shortly thereafter. "I deeply regret that my comments . . . may have caused embarrassment to the government of Thailand," she wrote. "They should not be taken as a criticism of the decision of the Royal Thai government to issue compulsory licenses, which is entirely the prerogative of the government."

In seizing the patents, Thailand is taking advantage of vague language in a World Trade Organization agreement on intellectual property rights permitting compulsory licensing in a time of "national emergency" or for "public non-commercial use." There's no such emergency in this case. And in any case, Thailand hasn't bothered to lift the taxes levied on drug imports or address the often double-digit markups on drugs as they wend their way through the domestic delivery system. It's even possible that Bangkok is considering seizing the patents, producing drugs at home, and turning its state-owned pharmaceutical monopoly into a regional drug store.

The WHO's executive board next meets in May. Unless Dr. Chan and other officials start publicly supporting intellectual property rights, there's a good chance Thailand's actions will be replicated elsewhere. That's bad news for pharmaceutical companies -- and for everyone who cares about drug innovation and public health.
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