Thailand wins round two in battle to access cheaper AIDS drugs

The military government in Thailand has won the second round in it's battle to access cheaper AIDS drugs for the nations 580,000 AIDS sufferers.

The drug giant Abbott is now offering to sell its latest antiretroviral drug Aluvia (Kaletra) in Thailand at a reduced price.

The offer follows wide criticism leveled at Abbott from many quarters, in particular AIDS activists who condemned Abbotts reluctance to supply the drug cheaply because Aluvia is an updated version of Kaletra and is heat-stable; this dispenses with the need for expensive cold storage in poor countries.

Thailand had threatened to import a generic version of Aluvia from India following an announcement by Abbott saying it would withhold the introduction of new drugs, including Aluvia, from the country.

According to the Thai Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS, the generic version of Aluvia costs about 4,000 baht, or $124, monthly, but generic drug makers could reduce the price to less than 2,000 baht, or $62, monthly.

Earlier this month Abbott agreed to cut the price of Kaletra by more than half to $1,000 per patient per year in low and middle-income countries.

Initially Abbott had refused to launch the drug in Thailand in protest against the government's decision in January to override an international patent on Kaletra.

The Thai Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla says nothing has been yet been finally concluded, but reports suggest that Abbott has offered to resubmit Aluvia at a price lower than any generic, provided Bangkok does not issue a compulsory licence allowing for the purchase or production of generic versions on Kaletra.

Whether Thailand will give such an assurance to the U.S. drug maker is unclear and Abbott is fearful Thailand will bargain away its rights under World Trade Organisation rules to issue a licence allowing the manufacture of a patented drug without the consent of a foreign patent owner.

Organisations such as Medicins Sans Frontieres says Abbott is holding patients hostage in efforts to force the government to back down on the compulsory licence issue.

Thailand is currently using generic versions of Merck's antiretroviral Efavirenz, despite the company's offer to reduce the drug's cost; Abbott's decision to reduce the cost of Aluvia does not affect its suspension of six other drugs from the Thai market.

The pharmaceutical drug giants were taken aback late last year when the new military post-coup government in Thailand decided to override the patent on Efavirenz, an HIV-AIDS treatment made by Merck by using World Trade Organisation rules which allow patents to be over-rode in the case of a national health emergency.

That action which might have meant compulsory licensing would be abused more widely, prompted drug companies to offer cheaper drugs in order to protect their licenses; Merck cut the price of Efavirenz by 46 percent for countries hard hit by HIV-AIDS, including Thailand.

French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis has also offered better access to its heart disease medicine Plavix after Thailand announced a compulsory licence, the first by a developing country for such a drug.