"The drug companies have underestimated the challenges facing the Thai government here," said Wills, a former assistant US Trade Representative and a veteran diplomat.

So when the Thai public health officials decided to go ahead to invoke the compulsory licensing, the drug companies were shocked.

In November last year, the Thai officials invoked compulsory licensing on Efarvarenz, an Aids-treated drug, owned by Merck & Co. By doing so, it suspended the patent protection and allowed the Pharmaceutical Organisation to produce generic drug based on this patent.

The issue does not end there as Thai health officials have moved further to announce that they would invoke compulsory licensing on Kaletra, a second defense drug for Aids, owned by Abbot Laboratories, and also Plavix, a heart disease treated drug, owned produced by Sanofi Aventis.

This has prompted an uproar among US and European pharmaceutical companies, which eventually has led the US Trade Representative to place Thailand in a "Priority Watch List", a list of countries which vio¬late US interests in copyrights and patents.

Wills, who departed Bangkok on Friday, made his trip here to get a first hand knowledge on the controversial move by the Thai health officials to invoke compulsory licensing.

He said he is an ambassador of goodwill, representing friends of Thailand who are concerned with the direction in this country. However, he admitted that the law firm he is working for has drug companies as clients.

Wills said the challenge for both sides is to work together to find a solution because developing treat¬ment for those affected by HIV should be the ultimate goal for all.

"At stake is literally a debate about life. Understandably, emotions run high. There is nothing more primal than self preserva¬tion. But we must establish a more robust dialogue about improving access to public health," he said.

"Drug companies must recognise the challenges facing governments in providing treatment to its citizens. Governments, on the other hand, must recognise the importance of intellectual property protection to attract investment to develop those treatments."

On May 21, representative of the drug companies and the Thai health officials will meet again to try to strike a compromise. The Thai officials claim that they have tried to talk the drug companies into cooperating with them about their pricing policy, yet their responses have been negative. At the same time, the drug companies claim that they have not been consulted adequately prior to the Thai government's move to invoke compulsory licensing.

Thailand's health system is not adequately funded although it receives a budget only second to education. Prices of drugs to treat Aids are way beyond the patients' ability to pay, putting heavy burden public health authorities, who also argue that the practice of compulsory licensing is permissable under the rules of the World Trade Organisation.

Brazil is also another country to have invoked compulsory licensing, which incurs the wrath of the US.

However, Wills said invoking the compulsory licensing would serve only a short term gain for the Thai government.

But the longer term, it hurts the Thai reputation and destroys the climate to do business in this country because Thailand is signalling out that it does not honour intellectual copyright and patent protection, he added.

"The decision to override medical patents, however, is not in the long term interests of the people of Thailand. Drug companies require intellectual property protection to develop medicines and to make them available to those in need. Nearly three million Americans are currently working to research and develop more than 70 per cent of the world's medicines - the very medicines that Thailand's patients depend upon for survival," Wills said.

by Thanong Khanthong

The Nation