Asia-Pacific

Thailand allows some copycat drugs

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-01-29 15:31

ANGKOK - Thailand's army-appointed government has approved generic, copycat versions of Kaletra, an HIV- AIDS drug, and Plavix, a blockbuster treatment for heart disease, in a move likely to outrage international pharmaceutical companies.

Thailand is the first developing country to invoke a 'compulsory license' under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules for a non-AIDS related drug.

"The laws have been signed and became effective on Friday," Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla told reporters on Monday.

Kaletra is made by Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT - news) and Plavix is sold by Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE:SNY - news) (SASY.PA) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY - news).

"We have to do this because we don't have enough money to buy safe and necessary drugs for the people under the government's universal health scheme," Mongkol said.

Thawat Suntrajarn, head of the Disease Control Department, said the drugs would initially be imported from India and then produced by Thailand's state-owned drug maker, which would cut the price for Plavix by 90 percent to 6 baht ($0.180) per tablet.

Under WTO rules, a government is allowed to declare a "national emergency" and license the production or sale of a patented drug without the permission of the foreign patent owner.

Plavix is Bristol-Myers Squibb's biggest-selling medicine, with annual sales of $6 billion before a copycat Canadian-manufactured version hit the market briefly in August.