National Health Security Office (NHSC) secretary-general Sa-nguan Nityarumpong said cancer was Thailand's second biggest health problem.

Sa-nguan, who heads the Public Health Ministry-assigned committee to nominate necessary drugs for compulsory licensing, said an NHSC team was studying cancer medicines in Canada and India.

They were not yet ready to name any drugs as they still had to consider political and foreign affairs policies, he said.

"The selection criteria includes national health problems and the number of patients who lack drug access," Sa-nguan said, adding officials would focus on quality before price.

He said compulsory licensing for cancer medicine would allow more people to access treatment. The NHSC scheme, which covers 47 million members, includes cancer treatment.

Cancer was a high-cost disease, Sa-nguan said, citing a 2005 statistic that 20,481 NHSC cancer patients were receiving treatment as outpatients. With 101,148 hospital visits, their treatment cost Bt263 million. He said 20,104 NHSC cancer patients were hospitalised at a cost of Bt690 million.

Thailand had already enforced compulsory licensing on the HIV/Aids drug Efavirenz, which now was 50 per cent cheaper, and was negotiating with the patent holders of Kaletra and the heart medicine Plavix.

Government Pharmaceutical Organisation chairman Dr Wichai Chokwiwat told a seminar at Chulalongkorn University yesterday that some HIV/Aids patients had developed resistance to the anti-viral GPO-VIR which cost Bt1,200 per head per month. That was why the government had to negotiate with holders of patents for other formulas. He said the decision on the purchasing price would be up to Public Health minister, as his duty was only to gather information for the procedure.

Another speaker, Thai Chamber of Commerce vice chairman Buntoon Wongseelashote said the chamber agreed with compulsory licensing but people mistakenly linked the generalised system of preferences (GSP) with the licensing.

Buntoon said the problem for Thai exporters was not GSP but the baht hardening. He urged the United States to sell patented drugs with consideration to the minimum wage rate in Thailand which was lower than Bt200 a day.