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Wednesday, March 26, 2008 |
| Health: EU Complains Again Aabout Affordable Medicine
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Brussels, 19 Mar (IPS/David Cronin) -- The European Union has made a fresh complaint to Thailand over policies aimed at guaranteeing that the poor are not deprived of vital medicines.
Shortly before leaving office, former Thai health minister Mongkol Na Songkhla issued compulsory licences in January this year, over-ruling patents on four treatments for cancer.
This was the latest in a series of decisions by the Bangkok government designed to bring down the prices of drugs that would otherwise be too expensive for a large section of the country's population.
The EU's executive, the European Commission, has requested the newly installed government headed by Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, to reconsider the move.
The EU's call comes despite its recognition that rules set by the World Trade Organisation do not forbid countries from giving measures deemed necessary to safeguard public health a higher priority than intellectual property rights asserted by pharmaceutical firms.
"The Commission has been in constant contact with the Thai authorities and has stressed that compulsory licensing, while allowed by WTO rules, should be regarded as a last-resort option, and that negotiations and collaboration with pharmaceutical companies should be sought," arussels-based trade official told IPS.
"The EU is hoping that this will be the line of the new government." The official asked not to be named.Anti-poverty and consumer protection campaigners have voiced their unease at the Commission's call, which follows a similar appeal to Thailand in July 2007. At that time, EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson wrote to Bangkok to
say that he was concerned by reports that Thai authorities had decided on "systematic use" of compulsory licensing in cases where they viewed the price of a patented drug as prohibitive. Such an approach would damage innovation in the pharmaceutical field, he contended.
Ellen t' Hoen from the aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders said that she regarded the Commission's latest call on Thailand as "quite shocking." She said that it is at variance with a declaration on public health approved by the WTO at a 2001 ministerial conference in the Qatar capital Doha.
"In no shape or form does that Doha declaration talk about compulsory licensing having to be a last resort," she added. "Nor does it ask for prior negotiations with the pharmaceutical industry when a government decides to use compulsory licensing."
EU officials have said that they do not have a problem with Thailand using compulsory licensing for AIDS treatment, as has been done over the past few years. Yet they have questioned how Thailand has also invoked such measures for heart disease and cancer treatments. Officials have privately queried if those diseases are so prevalent in Thailand that they constitute emergencies.
T' Hoen pointed out that there is nothing in the 2001 WTO declaration stipulating that it only applies to medicines for particular illnesses. "It is not up to DG Trade (the Commission's trade division) to decide if a cancer patient in Thailand gets treatment or not."
Jill Johnstone from the National Consumer Council in Britain said the vast majority of Thais lived on just over five dollars a day in 2006. Before a compulsory license was issued last year for Plavix, which is prescribed for patients who have had heart attacks or strokes, the price of a recommended daily dose was two dollars, she noted, "or nearly 40% of the average income of the bottom 80% of the population."
"There is simply no way that Thailand will be able to honour its Doha pledge to implement its intellectual property laws in a manner consistent with access to medicine for all, if the US and the European Commission exert pressure every time Thailand issues compulsory licenses," she added.
Defenders of compulsory licensing suggest that it has been a useful tool in persuading drug companies to reduce their prices. Among the treatments affected by January's announcement on cancer drugs was Imatinib, which is marketed under the brand name Glivec by the Swiss company Novartis.
After the Thai authorities announced that they were issuing a compulsory licence, Novartis offered this anti-leukaemia drug free of charge to the national health insurance programme. As a result, the compulsory license for this drug was dropped, though three others for treatments anufactured by other companies were maintained.
"Poor people with cancer or heart disease cannot afford to buy very expensive drugs," said a Thai diplomat. "That is why our government has used compulsory licensing for drugs for poor people."
"My personal opinion is that I understand that when compulsory licensing is used,drugs companies cannot make a profit. On the other hand, there should be sympathy towards really poor people who will die if they don't have these drugs."
Despite the Commission's stance, it claims to have no intention of formally asking the WTO to investigate Thai policies. "There has never been any talk of a WTO complaint on Thailand's compulsory licensing for medicines," said an EU source.
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