E-drug: ddI patent in Thailand
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The ddI formulation patent held by Bristol Myers Squibb in Thailand is
facing a legal challenge. Please see this well written article in
yesterday's newspapers.
Tido von Schoen-Angerer, MD
Medecins sans frontieres, Thailand
msfdrugs@asianet.co.th
The Nation, May 10, 2000
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/Wednesday/10sc01.shtml
Law Society agrees to prosecute ddI case
BY MUKDAWAN SAKBOON
THE Law Society of Thailand yesterday agreed to represent people infected
with HIV/Aids in their bid to get pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers
Squibb's patent on didanosine (ddI) - a major HIV/Aids drug - revoked.
The society will file a lawsuit with the Intellectual Property court to try
to improve access to the medication, a problem long facing the nearly one
million people who are HIV-positive in Thailand.
People infected with the virus had asked the law society to help them
prosecute their case against the US firm.
Many people living with HIV/Aids have long complained that the monopoly on
ddI held by Bristol-Myers Squibb has prevented them from gaining access to
the drug.
The working group will soon be set up and will comprise law experts, people
infected with the virus and doctors to look into the case, said society
president Sak Korsaengrueng.
Sak yesterday met representatives of the co-defendants, comprising
HIV-positive people, the Access Foundation and the Human Rights on Aids
Protection Centre.
The defendants said their effort was significant to improvement of access
to medication in Thailand as a whole.
US-based Bristol-Myers Squibb holds a 20-year patent to market ddI in
Thailand after obtaining it from department of Intellectual Property in
January, 1998.
But some law experts argue that its product is not a "new innovation" as
per the 1992 Patent Law, pointing to the availability of ddI in Thailand
long before BMS asked for the register of the patent in 1992.
By merely adding antacid as a buffer to the drug allowing it to be better
absorbed in the stomach, the company has not used any advanced technology
to develop its product, according to pharmacist Jiraporn Limpananond.
BMS sells ddI at around Bt46 to Bt49 per 100-milligram tablet. Patients
spend about Bt200 per day for the medicine. The daily minimum wage for
workers in Bangkok is Bt162.
Recent research shows only five to 10 per cent of people with HIV/Aids,
most of whom are low wage earners, have access to HIV/Aids drugs, and this
is mostly through trials and research.
Although the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) recently produced
a powdered variant of ddI and halved its price to around Bt24 to Bt26,
there has not yet been any order for its purchase from the Communicable
Disease Control Department (CDC), said Nimitr Tien-udom, director of Access
Foundation, an Aids counselling centre.
Under the patenting law, other firms or agencies are allowed to market ddI
in Thailand, provided the composition of the drug does not correspond
exactly to Bristol-Myer's product (i.e. a pill containing ddI and
antacid).
Nimitr said safety checks introduced by the Food and Drug Administration
for new drugs had facilitated monopolies instead of protecting consumers
and needed reviewing. As part of the measures imposed, the government has
prevented other companies marketing ddI in Thailand.
Dej-udom Krairit of the Law Society of Thailand suggested infected people
consult the House ombudsman to find out why the CDC had failed to order the
purchase. preventing the drug from being widely distributed to those in
need of it.
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