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Mongkol says US trip fails to win much support for compulsory licensing
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Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla Tuesday said his trip to the United States did not win much support for Thailand's move to enforce compulsory licensing on medicines.
Mongkol said US Commerce Secretary Carlos M Gutierrez and senior officials at the US Commerce Department "seriously asked" Thailand to stop the compulsory licenses.
However, Mongkol said his team had opportunities to explain why the compulsory licenses were necessary for lifesaving drugs to United States Trade Representative, which has recently downgraded Thailand's trade status to "Priority Watch List" citing widespread intellectual-property violations.
Mongkol said US Representative, Henry A Waxman expressed support behind Thai Government's policy to enhance poor people's access to drugs.
The Nation
COMPULSORY LICENSING
Drop drug policy, US tells Thais
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Gutierrez takes aggressive stance
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
Mongkol says US talks improve
Mongkol says US talks improve
Washington DC - A second-day of negotiation in the US capital by Minister of Public Health Mongkol Na Songkhla and his team to clarify to the United States the need of Thailand to issue compulsory licensing (CL) status for three key drugs has reportedly produced fruitful results.
Participating US business leaders and politicians concerned with the pharmaceuticals business now better understand the thinking behind the Thai actions, Dr Mongkol claimed.
Interviewed via a teleconference at the Thai embassy here, Dr Mongkol said his efforts to clarify the
matter with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the US-Asean Business Council, US Chamber of Commerce, Merck Co., and US senators and representatives on Tuesday, the second and last day of his mission, had made impressive progress.
Unlike day one of the negotiations, the discussion moved in a constructive direction, Dr Mongkol said, as all parties found that information on many issues obtained by the US authorities, was inaccurate.
Included are criticisms that Thailand intended to apply CL to a wide variety of medications, and the allegation that Thailand had never negotiated nor had ever an intention to negotiate with the US pharmaceutical companies.
The Thai public health minister said that the new discussion made all parties concerned with the compulsory licensing issue to understand the relevant facts more clearly.
"We consider today's negotiation as being very successful," Dr Mongkol explained. "It gives us hope that US-Thailand relations will improve and we will be able to work on other matters smoothly.
"Frankly speaking, it is a successful day. I feel very happy and relaxed from concerns for many days whether we can weather these obstacles," he said. "Today, I would say I can sleep happily tonight."
Dr Mongkol said he had an opportunity to meet and discuss with executives of Merck, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, about appropriate prices of Aids drugs.
He had met the executives earlier this month when the latter offered a final price of the drugs at 726 baht
per patient per month.
The Thai public health minister said the company's executives had the idea of working together with
the Public Health Ministry, which is considered a constructive development.
A working committee would be set up to discuss the cooperation in giving the poor, particularly children contracting Aids from their mothers, a greater access to Efavirenz, one of the key Aids drugs.
The discussion is expected to be concluded within the next two months. Should the talks produce fruitful results, the Thai poor would be given access to buy the most effective Aids drug at an unprecedented low price. (TNA)
