GSK fights back on Aids claims

The pharmaceuticals company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), whose offices in Thailand and India have been targeted by demonstrations against its attempts to patent a new anti-Aids drug, has said many countries have failed to handle the Aids epidemic because of poverty and lack of political will, not because of the patent system.

The protesters in Bangkok had said a patent on Combid-Combivir would give GSK a monopoly on Combid, which is part of standard treatment for HIV and Aids in Thailand and is made at present by the Government Pharmaceutical Organization in a generic version at an affordable price.

They have told the Thai government that the result of a GSK patent would be that the price of the drug would rise and patients would be severely disadvantaged.

However, GSK had decided to abandon its patent application before the demonstrations. The company said that focusing on patents in dealing with the challenge from HIV and Aids is ‘misguided and counterproductive’.

A GSK statement said: ‘New medicines and vaccines to address the challenge of HIV and Aids are desperately needed and the patent system fundamentally stimulates the necessary research and development.’