Thailand's military govt breaks two patents

The military government of Thailand, which took power last year, has announced its intention to utilize provisions of the World Trade Organization's agreement on intellectual property rights under the 2001 Doha Declaration, to issue compulsory licenses for two branded drugs.

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, are the affected drugs.

Harvey Bale, director general of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, "urged" the Thai authorities to discuss "directly with innovative companies" ways in which research-based drugmakers can deliver drugs to low-income patients at equal or better rates than their generic counterparts. "Compulsory licensing can be a route to commercial abuse and can put patients at risk" Dr Bale added, and "must be a last resort, if the interests of patients are taken as the primary concern."