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Published on January 30, 2008

"We believe the new administration understands that collaboration with all stakeholders in the health sector is needed to address the real issues affecting the quality of healthcare and development of innovation-based industries in Thailand," Teera Chakajnarodom, president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association of Thailand (PReMa), said yesterday.

Over the long run, compulsory licensing does little to improve people's health while causing damage to the economy, he said in a statement.

The new government should work with the drug industry in building the country's capacity to be an innovation centre in the region, he said.

He claimed that PReMa represents the research-and-development-based pharmaceutical industry in Thailand. However, the membership list posted on PreMa's website acknowledges that all of its members are local representatives of the international pharmaceutical industry, including Abbott Laboratories.

The US-based company withdrew its application to register seven important drugs in Thailand in retaliation for the Public Health Ministry's issuing of a compulsory licence on its Aids anti-retroviral cocktail Kaletra.

Novartis (Thailand), patent holder of cancer drug imatinib, Merck's MSD (Thailand), producer of Aids drug Efavirenz, and Sanof-Aventis, manufacturer of heart drug Plavix, are also members of PReMa.

Efavirenz and Plavix have already come under compulsory licensing while imatinib is in the pipeline.

The Nation