Thailand Saves Bt1 Billion Annually In Low-cost Meds

[george]

Thailand saves Bt1 billion annually in low-cost meds

BANGKOK: -- Thai Public Health Ministry’s decision to issue compulsory licenses for two HIV-AIDS pharmaceutical treatments and a heart disease drug is able to help low-income patients to gain access to quality drugs, while the national economy is able to benefit by more than Bt1 billion yearly in savings from imports, a senior ministry official said.

Dr. Sanguan Nitayarumphong, secretary general of the National Health Security Office (NHSO), said compulsory licenses for the heart disease drug Plavix, made by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis, and Abbott Laboratories' Kaletra to treat HIV/AIDS, both issued by the ministry in January, and another drug for treating HIV-AIDS, Efavirenz, manufactured by Merck and which was given a mandatory license in Thailand last November, could help save Thailand in foreign exchange of not less than Bt1 billion

annually.

Most importantly, it allows poor people suffering from these diseases to have access to the medicines as they are now becoming less expensive and hence have a better quality of life, said Dr. Sanguan.

For example, the price of Efavirenz is cheaper by about half the cost of the imported pharmaceutical, while Kaletra is about 40 per cent cheaper and could as a result now treat some 12,000 patients this year, up from 8,000 patients estimated earlier, he said.

In addition, the price of Plavix is about six times cheaper than the imported, patented drug.

The compulsory licenses which Thai health officials said earlier would spare the country from significant foreign exchange costs drew praise from AIDS activists but flak from the United States government and the drug industry, which are urging the ministry to rescind them.

The three foreign pharmaceutical companies complained they were caught by surprise as the government overruled their patent rights without prior consultation or negotiation – a point strongly denied by public health officials who claimed they have held repeated talks with the patent holders over pricing, but without real progress.

In contrast, the compulsory licensing in November has allowed the state-owned Government Pharmaceutical Organization to build up stocks of imported generic versions of AIDS medication Efavirenz – about 16,000 bottles so far.

--TNA 2007-03-04