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Published on March 1, 2008

The Public Health Ministry will soon be told the country can save as much as Bt8 billion from compulsory licensing of life-saving drugs.

The committee looking into the controversial policy estimates savings on treatments over five years will be between Bt3.2 billion and Bt8 billion.

These figures will soon be tabled with the ministry for consideration.

At yesterday's meeting, National Health Security Office deputy secretary-general Dr Winai Sawasdivorn said it was looking at five-year studies of three cancer drugs. They are docetaxel, sold as Taxotere by Sanofi Aventis; erlotinib, sold as Tarceva by Roche; and letrozole, sold as Femara by Novartis.

The National Cancer Institute of Thailand and others estimate there will be 12,000 new breast-cancer cases this year and 14,400 new cases in 2012.

There will be 10,000 new lung-cancer cases this year and 11,000 in 2012.

Calculating a higher mortality rate among lung-cancer patients than breast cancer, it estimates accumulated lung- and breast-cancer patients between 2008 and 2012 will be about 61,800, Winai said.

It is estimated between 500 and 1,500 breast-cancer patients will be prescribed docetaxel this year, and between 600 and 1,700 in 20121, Winai said, adding 1,200 to 2,850 lung-cancer patients will use docetaxel, and that will grow to 1,300 to 3,000 cases in 2012.

Letrozole will be prescribed in more than 4,000 breast-cancer cases this year, growing to 11,000 in 2012.

Erlotinib will be needed by between 350 and 1,400 lung-cancer patients this year, he said. That will grow to be between 400 and 1,600 cases in 2012, he added.

This will be expensive if the treatments used are patented, Winai explained. The costs are estimated at between Bt567 million and Bt1.5 billion this year and between Bt924 million to Bt2.2 billion in 2012. Throughout the five-year period, the total cost is between Bt3.7 billion and Bt9.4 billion.

Winai said compulsory licensing would save a lot of money - between Bt475 million and Bt1.2 billion this year and between Bt397 million and Bt1.9 billion in 2012.

Over the five years, the country can save between Bt3.2 billion and Bt7.9 billion, he explained.

He added some drug companies had not opposed compulsory licensing where patients were covered by universal healthcare.

Duangkamon Sajirawattanakul

The Nation