The ministry recently imposed compulsory licensing on several life-saving HIV/Aids and blood-pressure drugs. That means the government can ignore commercial patents and manufacture cheaper, generic versions of these drugs.

"They have already informed their parent companies of our offer. We are now waiting to hear whether they accept it," Food and Drug Administration secretary-general Dr Siriwat Tiptaradol said yesterday.

He heads the panel negotiating with pharmaceutical companies affected by compulsory licensing.

Compulsory licensing is permitted under World Trade Organisation rules in national emergencies or philosophically justified non-commercial cases. Patent holders can receive some royalties.

Late last year, the ministry imposed compulsory licensing on the HIV/Aids drug Efavirenz sold by United States-based global pharmaceutical giant Merck and its local subsidiary MSD Thailand as Stocrin.

This year it invoked compulsory licences for the HIV drug Kaletra made by Abbott Laboratories and the anti-clotting agent Plavix made by Sanofi-Aventis and its local subsidiary.

Siriwat expects to hear from Sanofi-Aventis and MSD today about the compensation offer.

"If they don't agree, negotiations will take several more rounds," he said.

Siriwat did not expect to hear from Abbott, which said it rejected compulsory licensing and would no longer sell new products in Thailand.

"There's nothing the FDA has to do here because we have proceeded by the law," he said.

Siriwat said the Abbott decision to withhold half a dozen new drugs would not affect the country. It would find generic replacements.

The FDA embraced the principle compulsory licensing to ensure co-existence between pharmaceutical companies and patients.

"We won't enforce compulsory licensing on every medicine. We need to do so only in cases of necessary but expensive medicines," Siriwat said.

He said drug company Novartis would meet his panel today to discuss special prices for its Glivec leukaemia treatment. "We hope poor people will now have better access to medicines at a reasonable price," he said.