Efforts by Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla and Thai officials to clarify Thailand's need to invoke compulsory licensing of key drugs - including one for poor people with HIV or Aids - have failed to impress the United States.

Yesterday the US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez demanded that Thailand abandon moves for compulsory licensing of several key drugs.

Speaking from Washington DC via a teleconference, Mongkol said the talks with Gutierrez and his team on Monday, local time, ended on a negative note, as Gutierrez took an aggressive stance and acted as a representative of US drug firms to demand compulsory licensing moves be cancelled.

"We achieved nothing. From now on, the Commerce, Foreign Affairs and Public Health ministries will go ahead with the CL process," he said.

Carlos Gutierrez was one of three US key officials Mongkol and his team discussed the issue with. The other two were Ambassador John Veroneau, deputy chief of US Trade Representative (USTR), and Henry Waxman, a representative of the Democrat Party in California and chairman of the Committee on Examination of the Government's Performance.

Mongkol said only the talk with Waxman produced a positive result, as the latter promised to support Thailand's access to expensive medications, while Veroneau had just asked about the rationales in invoking compulsory licensing.

Vichai Chokewiwat, chairman of Government Pharmaceutical Organisation's board, who went with Mongkol, said that while Veroneau of the USTR had no doubts about legal aspects of Thailand's use of compulsory licensing, he wanted Thailand to think carefully again.

Vichai said he saw a little progress from the trip, but at least Thai representatives had the chance to explain its moves to both the legislative and executive branches of the US.

Moreover, he said, a good sign was that at least one drug firm supported Thailand.

Vichai said representatives of the California-based Gilead Sciences told Mongkol that the company had explained to the USTR that the use of compulsory licensing in Thailand did not effect the research and development or investments by the company.

The health authorities' trip to talk to US representatives from various sectors was scheduled after Thailand was strongly criticised by the American media and some Congress members for its use of compulsory licensing.

Mongkol invoked the move to allow cheap generic versions of two HIV/Aids treatments Lopinavir/Ritronavir and Efavirenz, plus a heart disease drug Clopidogrel to be imported for the Thai market. Shortly after, the USTR placed Thailand on its Priority Watch List, and claimed Thailand did not provide adequate protection or enforcement of intellectual property rights.

But the move won support from former US president Bill Clinton, plus other developing countries such as Brazil and the Philippines, which are now considering following Thailand's lead.

Duangkamol     Sajirawattanakul

The Nation