Thailand holds "final" talk with drugmakers

19 February 2007

Following reports that the military-appointed government of Thailand will break the patents for two drugs (Marketletter February 5), protests by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations and the World Health Organization appear to have encouraged at least a token gesture from the Thai Public Health Ministry.

The two drugs affected by the government's compulsory licensing decision are Plavix (clopidogrel), an oral antiplatelet drug for cardiovascular diseases, which is jointly-manufactured by French drug major Sanofi-Aventis and the USA's Bristol-Myers Squibb, and the USA-based Abbott Laboratories' Kaletra (lopinavir), a protease inhibitor antiretroviral drug.

Drugmakers "reaped huge profits"

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