Amended law 'may hit access to drugs'
The public Health Ministry has opposed the government's plan to amend the patent law - aimed at speeding up the registration process to approve drug patents - as it would make it more difficult for patients to get access to medicines.
Bangyong Limprayoonwong, deputy director-general of the Intellectual Property Department, said that the Health Ministry had sent a letter to the department early this month saying that it had some concerns over the amended patent law, especially in respect of patent registration and the duration of drug protection. According to the draft of the amended act, patent registration will be faster as some complicating procedures should be cut out. The current law stipulates that after the application to register a patent is filed, officials would normally wait for a few years to see if anyone has any objection to the registration. The process can be longer for complicated cases. Under the new guidelines for patent registration, officials will accept the registration after a primary examination only, without looking into the details. Applicants are then required to advertise twice. The new guidelines are a change from the old system when the registrar could exercise his or her judgement to withdraw the application. "Not many countries are still following the system used in Thailand because it takes time and becomes unpredictable. The department thus chose the international standard to promote more transparency in the approval. This will also protect locally invented products as well," Bangyong said. Bangyong dismissed the notion that the amendment was a result of the US process, saying that the process to amend the patent law started in 2005. However, the amended law received a mixed reception from various agencies, so the department had to look at the draft of the amended act again. Puangrat Asavapisit, director-general of the Intellectual Property Department, said that a legal working group had also studied whether Thailand should be a signatory to the Patent Cooperation Treaty. "The Foreign Ministry didn't recommend whether Bangkok should be a signatory to the Patent Cooperation Treaty. Thus, the department had to set up a working group to study the pros and cons thoroughly before forwarding the recommendation to the Cabinet for approval," she said.
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