{"id":2637,"date":"2007-02-05T12:33:21","date_gmt":"2007-02-05T11:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moomango.co.uk\/htb\/?p=2637"},"modified":"2013-09-20T18:05:17","modified_gmt":"2013-09-20T18:05:17","slug":"thailand-issues-compulsory-license-to-manufacture-lopinavirr-who-criticised-for-challenging-this-essential-access-to-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/2637","title":{"rendered":"Thailand issues compulsory license to manufacture lopinavir\/r: WHO criticised for challenging this essential access to treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 29 January, Kaiser Daily News reported that Thailand\u0092s Ministry of Public Health had issued a compulsory license to produce a lower-cost version lopinavir\/r (manufactured and marketed by Abbott Laboratories as Kaletra).<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla, the compulsory license was signed into law under World Trade Organization regulations that allow governments to declare a \u0093national emergency\u0094 without consulting the foreign patent owner. Thailand, which has 580,000 people living with HIV\/AIDS, has won international recognition for its quick launch of a national drug program that treats more than 82,000 HIV-positive people. However, the government\u0092s commitment to providing universal access to care is facing increasingly high drug costs.<\/p>\n

The lower-priced version could reduce costs from $347 to $120 per patient monthly, and could save the country as much as $24 million annually, and make the drug much more widely available. Approximately 108,000 people living with HIV\/AIDS in Thailand depend on GPO-VIR, a generic, first-line antiretroviral produced by the country\u0092s Government Pharmaceutical Organization. Around 20% (20,000 HIV-positive people) have developed resistance to their first combination and are dependent on access to lopinavir\/r.<\/p>\n

Many health care activists were shocked when instead of supporting this development, the World Health Organization cautioned the Thai government on its decision.<\/p>\n

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan during a visit to Thailand\u0092s National Health Security Office said the country should negotiate the price of Kaletra with Abbott before issuing a compulsory license and encouraged the nation\u0092s public health ministry to improve its relationship with drug companies. \u0093I\u0092d like to underline that we have to find a right balance for compulsory licensing,\u0094 Chan said, adding, \u0093We can\u0092t be naive about this. There is no perfect solution for accessing drugs in both quality and quantity.\u0094<\/p>\n

Nimit Tienudom, president of Thailand\u0092s AIDS Access Foundation, said that Chan\u0092s position was \u0093disappointing\u0094 and that WHO \u0093should have supported drug access and promoted the study of quality and inexpensive drugs for the sake of the global population rather than supporting pharmaceutical giants.\u0094<\/p>\n

Comment<\/h3>\n

When it comes to global access to ARVs, WHO\u0092s new Director-General, Margaret Chan, has gotten off on a very bad foot by chastising the Thai government for issuing its compulsory license for lopinavir\/r.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chan is quoted as saying that the Thai government had not negotiated with Abbott, as if there hadn\u0092t already been years of negotiation and on this issue, especially in middle income countries where Abbott charge $2000 or more for Kaletra, compared to $500 a year in Africa. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Thailand, one of the few countries to meet its 3×5 target (over 50% of the population in need is on ARVs), is facing an immediate emergency with respect to the need for a second line boosted protease inhibitor regimen for people who fail first line therapy. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Chan also makes an incorrect correlation between drug quality and quantity, implying that Thai GPO lopinavir\/r will necessarily be inferior to Abbott\u0092s.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sources: Kaiser daily news:<\/p>\n

Thai Health Ministry Breaks Patent, Issues Compulsory License for Abbott\u0092s Antiretroviral Kaletra:
\nhttp:\/\/www.kaisernetwork.org\/daily_reports\/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=42580<\/a><\/p>\n

and:<\/p>\n

WHO Cautions Thailand Against Issuing Compulsory License for Abbott\u0092s Antiretroviral Kaletra\u0092:
\nhttp:\/\/www.kaisernetwork.org\/daily_reports\/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=42708<\/a><\/p>\n

A formal letter of complaint over this issue was sent by the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition, signed by over 400 advocate organisations.<\/p>\n

In a speach at the Global Justice conference sponsored by the Student Global AIDS Campaign, Student Trade Justice Campaign, Stephen Lewis called the actions of Margaret Chan deplorable and highlighted why signals that the DG is siding with big pharma over the issue of generic medications is a serious problem.<\/p>\n

An eight minute segment of the speach is posted at:
\nhttp:\/\/www.fightglobalaids.org\/news\/?p=139<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 29 January, Kaiser Daily News reported that Thailand\u0092s Ministry of Public Health had issued a compulsory license to produce a lower-cost version lopinavir\/r (manufactured and marketed by Abbott Laboratories as Kaletra). According to Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla, the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-treatment-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}