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The price of the antiretroviral drug Kaletra, used in HIV and Aids
treatment, has been reduced in Thailand after negotiations between the
US manufacturer Abbott Laboratories and the Thai government.
The decision followed a health ministry announcement that Thailand would issue a compulsory licence for the drug, a device endorsed by the World Trade Organization allowing the government to produce a lower-cost version of a medicine in a national emergency without consulting the foreign patent owner.
This would bring down the monthly price of Kaletra per patient from $347 to $120 and could save Thailand $24million (£12.5m) a year.
After the negotiations Abbott and the ministry jointly stated that the price was being cut to widen access to the drug for HIV-positive patients treated in the public health service who have developed resistance to other antiretrovirals. The original price will continue to apply to private hospitals and high-income and foreign patients.
Thailand, where 580,000 people are estimated to be living with HIV and Aids, has gained international recognition for promptly introducing a national treatment programme, but the government is worried about drug costs.
However, a writer in the Wall Street Journal Asia observed that the only winner in the compulsory Kaletra licence debate would be ‘Thailand’s historically corrupt’ government pharmaceutical organization. He said the organization’s facilities had not passed the World Health Organization’s manufacturing standards, and because there was no data on the quality of the drugs produced by the organization, ‘they are at best approximate copies and should not be labelled generics’.
The decision followed a health ministry announcement that Thailand would issue a compulsory licence for the drug, a device endorsed by the World Trade Organization allowing the government to produce a lower-cost version of a medicine in a national emergency without consulting the foreign patent owner.
This would bring down the monthly price of Kaletra per patient from $347 to $120 and could save Thailand $24million (£12.5m) a year.
After the negotiations Abbott and the ministry jointly stated that the price was being cut to widen access to the drug for HIV-positive patients treated in the public health service who have developed resistance to other antiretrovirals. The original price will continue to apply to private hospitals and high-income and foreign patients.
Thailand, where 580,000 people are estimated to be living with HIV and Aids, has gained international recognition for promptly introducing a national treatment programme, but the government is worried about drug costs.
However, a writer in the Wall Street Journal Asia observed that the only winner in the compulsory Kaletra licence debate would be ‘Thailand’s historically corrupt’ government pharmaceutical organization. He said the organization’s facilities had not passed the World Health Organization’s manufacturing standards, and because there was no data on the quality of the drugs produced by the organization, ‘they are at best approximate copies and should not be labelled generics’.
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