Thai Medicine Prices Will Soar Under FTA With EU: Study

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Medicine prices will soar under FTA with EU: study

By Pongphon Sarnsamak

The Nation

Thailand's free trade agreement with Europe will swell the country's spending on medicine by up to Bt700 billion while pushing up the prices of pharmaceuticals by 67 per cent in 20 years, putting them out of reach for many patients.

The findings, part of a study, were revealed yesterday by Usawadee Maleewang, one of a team of researchers studying the impacts of the FTA.

The provision of the FTA involving the period of patent extension, drug registration, data exclusivity, and criminalisation of patent enforcement allows the Customs Department to confiscate counterfeit drugs at checkpoints when the drugs are imported.

Usawadee has drawn up 13 scenarios under three conditions that would cause severe impacts on the public health system. They include the period of patent extension, acceptance of a delay in generic drug entry, and acceptance of data exclusivity, which allows drugmakers with patents to extend their monopoly for 10 more years.

The researchers found that the European Union's proposal involving the period of patent extension would cause a huge problem for the public health system, followed by extending data exclusivity to 10 years.

The period of patent extension will affect the quality of patients' lives and access to medicine, particular for people living with HIV, as they need anti-retroviral drugs such as efavirenz, lopinavir and ritonavir to survive.

"We found that each person living with HIV has to spend over Bt500,000 for medication. But patients will have to pay at least Bt1 million to live longer if the period of a patent is extended to 10 years," he said.

Data exclusivity extension to 10 years will pose an obstacle for generic drugs to enter the Thai market.

Original drug makers have asked Thai health authorities to protect their product information when their products are registered with the Food and Drug Administration.

This means generic drug makers cannot use any information related to the drugs produced by the original drug maker to compare in a bio-equivalent study. The FDA requires generic drug makers to conduct tests and compare their product's efficacy with the original product.

This trade pact will increase the price of pharmaceuticals by 60-70 per cent from the present price.

The study has asked the government to embrace a clear position before making a free trade deal with the European Union. The FTA must not go beyond the WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.

The government should also have a mechanism in place to scrutinise new drug patent applications.

-- The Nation 2010-12-08

[geriatrickid]

Such is the price to be paid to sell one's rice and manufactured goods into the foreign market.

Oh well, Thailand can always cut a deal with China.

[Humphrey Bear]

Why waste all this money on keeping HIV+ people alive?

If there were no retroviral drugs and people knew they would die if the caught HIV/AIDS, then most people would take precautions. And there would be less of it around.

Also, a ten-year patent life? How many of these drugs have been around for several years already, so there's little life left in the patent?

Will make not the slightest difference to Thai medical treatments - they'll still use the coloured cornflour tablets for every ailment.

[Scott]

I will be sure and pass your comments on to the children of a former maid that I had. Her husband contracted AIDS, passed it on to her and her two children. Both parents are dead and there are two orphaned children who could do nothing to prevent catching the disease.

They can't attend the local school, play with the local children or anything that even remotely resembles a normal life.

[londonthai]

Why waste all this money on keeping HIV+ people alive? If there were no retroviral drugs and people knew they would die if the caught HIV/AIDS, then most people would take precautions. And there would be less of it around.

all patients are paying themselves for their medication, there are no free medicines in thailand. Anti-retroviral are new medicines, before that there were not any and HIV was spreading as much as it is spreading now - it's not about being scared of catching illness, but about health education (same with alcohol, cigarettes, fatty foods, salt, sugar etc).

there are as well hundreds of other life threatening illnesses, like cancer, diabetes, heart conditions which need constant use of medicines and they might become beyond reach of many patients in the future.

[mccw]

Sign the fta and then not realy enforce the patent laws. The occasional arrest to show as if doing something. All the cheap drugs will still be available. Nothing to worry about.

The benefits to the Thai economy from this fta will be substantial.

[nisakiman]

Thailand should get wise. Any deal with the EU is a poisoned chalice.

There is an army of overpaid jobsworths in Brussels to support. Where does the Thai government think the money comes from to pay them all?

[johna]

Why waste all this money on keeping HIV+ people alive?

If there were no retroviral drugs and people knew they would die if the caught HIV/AIDS, then most people would take precautions. And there would be less of it around.

Also, a ten-year patent life? How many of these drugs have been around for several years already, so there's little life left in the patent?

Will make not the slightest difference to Thai medical treatments - they'll still use the coloured cornflour tablets for every ailment.

using that logic an increase in death taxes would be an incentive for people to live longer

[Bagwan]

Why waste all this money on keeping HIV+ people alive?

If there were no retroviral drugs and people knew they would die if the caught HIV/AIDS, then most people would take precautions. And there would be less of it around.

Also, a ten-year patent life? How many of these drugs have been around for several years already, so there's little life left in the patent?

Will make not the slightest difference to Thai medical treatments - they'll still use the coloured cornflour tablets for every ailment.

This qualifies as the most insensitive, uniformed, ignorant and callous post I have ever read on this board. If there were licences to breed yours should be immediately withdrawn to prevent further contamination of the human race. If any mod has read this and passed it then they too should be ashamed.

Do you not know that most victims are Thai ladies who have contracted the disease from errant husbands?

The incubation period for the HIV virus can be as long as ten years. With luck you might have an unpleasant surprise waiting for you.

[animatic]

I will be sure and pass your comments on to the children of a former maid that I had. Her husband contracted AIDS, passed it on to her and her two children. Both parents are dead and there are two orphaned children who could do nothing to prevent catching the disease.

They can't attend the local school, play with the local children or anything that even remotely resembles a normal life.

I have a similar refutation of this reality to counter that odious theory.

Accidental needle prick causes aids unknown to father, gives it to wife, and 2nd child born with it.

all three died, the son at age 3. One surviving daughter orphaned as preteen.

It is a horror, and no one should be condemned to death based on some theory such as you are responding too.