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Right or Wrong? |
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After the Thai government announces to issue CL to import and produce 3 cheap of generic drugs, The Thai government was also under increasing pressure from the drug companies and US government by discredit Thai government pharmaceutical and Thai government pass through mainstream media. Read more of misunderstand article in the Hill and the letter of US academic who answer the truth. |
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Op-eds
Don’t commend theft of AIDS drug patents
By Sally C. Pipes
The Hill , October 18, 2007
Imagine if Congress sponsored a resolution praising a foreign government — which recently seized power in a military coup — for stealing from U.S. companies and deliberately undermining the fight against AIDS.
Amazingly, that’s exactly what’s happening. The military government of Thailand, which came to power in a coup last September, is actively stealing patented medicine from the very companies that have developed the leading cures for AIDS.
Now, in a staggering display of cluelessness, Rep. Tom Allen (D-Maine) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) have sponsored a resolution praising the Thai government for its theft and urging the United States not to enforce intellectual property standards.
Apparently, Allen and Brown think that Thailand is playing the role of Robin Hood — providing medication to AIDS victims by stealing property rights from the companies that develop cures. Bill Clinton thinks so too. In May, he expressed his support for Thailand’s decision.
That is criminally naïve.
The Thai population is suffering from an AIDS epidemic. The U.N. estimates that nearly 600,000 Thais are afflicted. But the government is more interested in using this crisis to steal patents and develop its own drug business than providing Thai patients with the effective cures.
In fact, the Thai government recently rejected an offer from two U.S. drug companies, which proposed to sell two of the world’s leading AIDS medications, Kaletra and Efavirenz, at cut-rate prices.
The Thai government also refused to accept an offer for free — that’s right, free — generic Efavirenz from The Global Fund.
Instead, the Thai government decided to manufacture its own knockoffs. It ignored the licenses for these drugs and tasked its own generic pharmaceutical company, the Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO), to manufacture clones.
Never mind the fact that manufacturing the drugs actually costs more than buying them through legal channels — or accepting them for free. Clearly, this decision was about enriching cronies in the GPO, not helping Thai AIDS patients.
As justification for its theft, the Thai government pointed to a World Trade Organization arrangement called TRIPS — the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. TRIPS allows some governments to apply for “compulsory patents” in the case of health emergencies.
Of course, there was no emergency here because Thailand already had free access to the drugs it needed. The government’s actions are particularly egregious because its official manufacturer, GPO, has repeatedly failed to comply with the quality and safety standards of the World Health Organization. In July 2005, it emerged that inferior GPO products have actually caused drug-resistant cases of AIDS to increase.
But setting aside these safety concerns, Thailand’s actions threaten to upset the economic incentives that allow western firms to produce novel cures — like AIDS drugs — in the first place.
It takes about $800 million and more than a decade of research to bring a drug from its initial discovery through the FDA approval process and finally to patients. Without the period of sales exclusivity guaranteed by a patent, it would be impossible to recoup this investment — or even to attract the venture capital needed to fund the initial research.
Without patent protections, the drug industry as we know it would collapse, and development of new drugs would be significantly curtailed.
By urging our government to let other nations seize licenses to manufacture American drugs, Brown and Allen would slaughter the goose that lays the golden eggs of medical innovation. Already, other nations like Brazil are following suit and have begun stealing cures. If this trend grows, we can say goodbye to the next AIDS cure. That’s not something our Congress should commend.
Pipes is president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute, which is partially funded by the pharmaceutical industry, and an adviser on healthcare to GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani |
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Letter from Professor Brook K. Baker, Health GAP Northeastern U. School of Law to Sally C. Pipes |
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I have submitted this letter to the editor responding the attack on Thai CLs and on Senators Brown and Allen for sponsoring the Doha Declaration Resolution.
Sally C. Pipes Op-Ed, Don't commend theft of AIDS drug patents, Oct. 18, is rife with misstatements of fact and law.
First, Thailand is not "stealing" from U.S. drug companies - it is using a lawful flexibility permitting a generic producer to make medicines for public non-commercial use in Thailand's public health care system. This flexibility is lawful under international law, under Thai law in effect when each of the aggrieved drug companies first filed their patent applications in Thailand, and under comparable U.S. law that allows any government official or contractor in the U.S. to take a patented product or process for government use.
Second, Thailand never rejected an offer of free efavirenz from the Global Fund. The Global Fund and the new drug procurement fund, UNITAID, have agreed that UNITAID resources can be used within Global Fund proposals to purchase certain second-line AIDS medicines. However, Global Fund rules require countries to try to access the cheapest drugs available - in this case generic drugs.
Third, Pipes claims that Thailand is trying to develop its own drug business by having the Government Pharmaceutical Organization manufacture the licensed drugs. However, at this point in time, each and every
licensed medicine is actually be sourced from generic manufacturers in India. Although Thailand hopes to build a world-class pharmaceutical plant, it has not done so yet, nor would it be inappropriate for it to try to establish a degree of self-sufficiency in manufacturing generic alternatives to overpriced medicines.
Fourth, Pipes claims that the TRIPS Agreement allows compulsory licenses only for some countries and only in the case of health emergencies. Both of these claims are legally inaccurate - every Member of the WTO, including
the U.S., has the right to issue compulsory licenses on any grounds it deem appropriate. Moreover, such flexibilities are not limited to emergencies, though the presence of an emergency does permit expedited procedures.
Fifth, Pipes claims that drug innovation will come to a crashing halt if Thailand issues compulsory licenses. To the contrary, not only has Thailand left its private sector, 20% of its health system, open to patent holder's higher priced goods, but Thailand comprises a minuscule portion of the global pharmaceutical market. None of these drug companies will have their high-markup, monopoly-priced sales in rich-country market affected, and it is in these markets that drug companies earn 87% of their income.
Like Pipes says, patents are the goose that lays golden eggs for drug companies. However, poorer countries like Thailand cannot afford to pay gold-standard prices for medicines needed to treat hundreds of thousands of sick Thais. Instead of condemning Members of Congress, Senators Brown and Allen, who stand up for developing countries’ right to exercise exceptions to patent rules that the United States has agreed to on multiple occasions, we should congratulate those rare politicians who are willing to stand up the pharmaceutical industryโ€ s political machine, which apparently includes members of GOP candidate Giuliani's campaign advisors.
Professor Brook K. Baker, Health GAP
Northeastern U. School of Law
Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy
400 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
617-373-3217 (office)
617-259-0760 (cell) |
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Back to CL Movement |
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