Cannabis move ‘a boon for pharma giants’

[webfact]

Cannabis move ‘a boon for pharma giants’

By PRATCH RUJIVANAROM 
THE NATION

 

 

Activists say medication will become unaffordable for Thais, commerce ministry vows to review patents after holidays.

 

LEGALISING CANNABIS for medical use is a New Year’s gift to transnational pharmaceutical companies, not the Thai public, activists said yesterday. 

 

BioThai Foundation and FTA Watch insisted again yesterday that all patent applications for cannabis-based medications be removed from the Department of Intellectual Property (DIP)’s system within a month. Their argument is that local research agencies will not be able to develop cannabis-based medicines and Thai patients will end up having to rely on expensive versions created by international pharmaceutical giants. 

 

Withoon Lienchamroon, director of Biothai Foundation, said Thailand was running out of time to solve issues related to patents for cannabis-based drugs, and insisted that all problematic applications on cannabinoid medications had to be removed before the newly amended Narcotic Drugs Act is enforced. 

 

The National Legislative Assembly approved the limited use of cannabis and kratom for medical purposes on Christmas Day. 

 

“This is our last chance to solve the problem of patent registration in order to ensure full benefits for Thai society from this progressive reform,” Withoon said. “Even though the government seems to have realised the seriousness of the problem and is implying that it will not enforce this law until the cannabis patent problem is solved, we feel they are too slow in tackling this issue.” 

 

Hence, he said, the Commerce Ministry should set up a committee that includes representatives from the academic and public sectors to urgently and transparently deal with this problem within a month. 

 

Clear timeframe needed

 

“We want the ministry to set up a clear timeframe and roadmap to tackle the patent issue. We also strongly urge the government to not use the absolute power of Article 44 to solve this problem, because it is not recognised internationally and pharmaceutical giants can sue the country,” he warned. 

 

BioThai Foundation said in a statement that even though many organisations and academic institutions have been actively protesting against the patents, not one of the 10 patent applications in DIP’s system have been removed, including the three applications that had been reportedly rejected. 

 

If the issue is not dealt with in time, BioThai cautioned that the owners of these patents will end up using Thailand’s own intellectual property protection laws to hinder local cannabis medicine development efforts. Patent holders can protect their innovation under Article 35 of the Intellectual Property Protection Act.

 

Biothai also said that once the patents are approved, international pharmaceutical giants will have absolute control over the manufacturing, distribution and sales of their cannabis-based medicines, which will force Thai patients to rely on expensive, imported cannabis-based medication. 

 

Meanwhile, Commerce Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong said his ministry will discuss the issue with related agencies after the New Year period to find a solution to this problem. 

 

“There is a total of 31 patent applications for cannabis medicines in our system and we need to thoroughly check these applications to see which ones are eligible. This process can be time-consuming,” Sontirat said.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30361192

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-12-27

[Cadbury]

55 minutes ago, webfact said:

Cannabis move ‘a boon for pharma giants

Not only for pharma giants but also shaping up as a potential boon for corrupt politicians and high ranking civil servants and those who have the power to say who gets their patents approved. Nothing remarkable about that though, happens all the time.

[Thailand]

Cartels by another name.

[happy chappie]

Yes and these pharmacist giants will dictate the price they will pay the farmer so they will stay poor and the companies will get 99.999% of the boom.

[impulse]

6 minutes ago, happy chappie said:

Yes and these pharmacist giants will dictate the price they will pay the farmer so they will stay poor and the companies will get 99.999% of the boom.

 

So...  Just like pretty much every agricultural commodity in Thailand.  Except that the Who's Who of the plunderers will have a few new faces.  But probably a lot of the usual suspects.

 

[mok199]

So much drama , when all people want is to ''smoke a joint''.....children!

[YetAnother]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

we feel they are too slow in tackling this issue.

it is called ineptitude

[Colabamumbai]

Get cozy with your local farmers now.

[Justgrazing]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

This process can be time-consuming,” Sontirat said.

Before taking another lungfull offa the Bong .. 

[dickjones2018]

only in thailand?

cannabis was legal

some <deleted> made it illegal in '73? '79 ?  it was used for hundreds of years FOR FREE

now the law was pushed quickly and we know why... someone is getting rich

 

a gift to the people would be:  here are some seeds, plant it in your own garden, if you have too much, give it away or sell a bit to your neighbor who lives in a condo

 

nahhhhhhhh

[clokwise]

What are these patents for? Medical marijuana in California a few years ago was just just bud, shatter, hash, and edibles? What is there to patent with that?

[Pedrogaz]

I really don't understand this. Pharma companies cannot patent smoking of the plant. So a cheap supply will always be available.

 

[connda]

What this is really about is 'who gets rich by supplying Thais with cannabis-based medicines.' 

 

If the government wanted to allow Thais access to medical marijuana, then simply legalize it for medical purposes, i.e., with a doctor's prescription a patient has the right to possess and use marijuana in its original plant form.  However, that isn't what this is about.  It's about corning the market with so-called medicines that are a derivative of marijuana (minus the THC) that can be sold to the public for multiples of what an ounce of pot would cost.
So right now there is hand-wringing over the evil foreigner pharmacy patents, but that's only because what was wanted was for all those patents to be in the hands of rich and connected Thais. 

They are whining because the headline, "Cannabis move ‘a boon for pharma giants’, should have read, "Cannabis move ‘a boon for Thai pharma companies and their Thai friends in high places’.

 

 

[Redline]

Always late to the table 

[Basil B]

Cannabis move ‘a boon for pharma giants’

I am sure the doc's are going to make a killing writing scripts...