Health Ministry wants drug firms to negotiate
Pharmaceutical companies should come forward and negotiate with the Public Health Ministry over the latter's decision to legally break the patent on their medicines.
"They can receive royalties. Or, if they reduce the price of their medicines, we will be willing to buy them," Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla said yesterday. Last Friday, Mongkol signed the order to enforce compulsory licensing of Kaletra, a drug used to treat HIV patients and Plavix, which is used for heart-disease patients. With a compulsory license, a government can force the holder of a patent, copyright, or other exclusive rights, to grant use of the drug to the state. Usually, the holder does receive some royalties, either set by law or determined through some form of arbitration. In response to the Public Health Ministry's move, international pharmaceutical and bio-science companies announced they would put their investments in Thailand on hold. Mongkol yesterday insisted that his ministry was not being unfair to the patent holders as they had already reaped the benefits from the cost of these medicines for a long time. One Plavix tablet will cost just Bt6 under the compulsory licensing - while the original price was Bt70. Disease Control Department's director general Dr Thawat Suntrajarn, said the compulsory licensing would bring the price of Kaletra down by more than half. "The manufacturers should sympathise with our people. We are still a poor country," Mongkol said, adding that affordable medicines will be able to reduce patients' pain and allow them to live longer. Asked about the pharmaceutical companies' threat to sue his ministry, Mongkol said he was confident they would not. "Thailand is generous enough. We don't require pharmaceutical companies to open factories in our country when they come to sell their medicines," he said, adding that this was the key condition in Indonesia. Asked whether he would impose compulsory licensing on any other medicines, Mongkol said the step would be taken where necessary. He also suggested that pharmaceutical companies should consider lowering the price of live-saving medicines wherever possible. "They don't need to wait for the compulsory licensing," he said.
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