• 
• 

Published on February 16, 2008

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej will decide within a week if the government will scrap controversial compulsory licensing on expensive, foreign-made, lifesaving cancer and HIV/Aids drugs.

He will make his decision after listening to Commerce, Foreign Affairs and Public Health ministry submissions, according to Commerce Minister Mingkwan Sangsuwan.

"The government is in the process of cautiously reviewing the outcome of compulsory licensing," Mingkwan said yesterday. He added that any trade obstacles resulting from the policy would be considered.

The three ministries will discuss the policy next week.

"They will report to their ministers who will then bring the information to the premier," Mingkwan said.

Meanwhile, Public Health Ministry spokesman Dr Suphan Srithamma said the National Health Security Office and the National Cancer Institute were collecting cancer patient mortality and treatment-cost information.

"We hope to present the information to the meeting of representatives from the three ministries," Suphan said.

The decision to gather this information was taken after he met with patient networks. They insisted compulsory licensing was right and transparent.

Aids Access Foundation chairman Jon Ungphakorn said the government must ignore the possible loss of trade benefits from the Generalised System of Preferences if it continued to enforce compulsory licensing.

"It's common that GSP privileges will gradually reduce when a country's exports to the United States are huge," he said.

Jon insisted the government consider instead the economics of having patients treated with proper medicines being able to return to work healthy.

"If compulsory licensing is revoked, I will question whether any politician has reaped personal benefits," Jon said. Earlier this week, Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat refused to reveal the details of a meeting of the three permanent secretaries.

Petchanet Pratruangkrai,

Duangkamon Sajirawatthanakul

The Nation