Unlike old generals, drug-patent wars not only do not die
but do not even fade away.
As reported by Reuters and other major media, on Monday,
August 7, hundreds of Thais living with HIV/AIDS demonstrated in front of the Bangkok offices of drug
maker GlaxoSmithKline to protest a patent application for its key
anti-retroviral drug, Combid. If granted, demonstrators and their supporters
claimed, the patent would block production and sales of a generic version of
Combid (called Zilarvir) produced by Thailand's state drug company, Government
Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO), and distributed to some 80,000 people under
a programme expanded last year and covered by Thailand's public healthcare
plan.
Granting the patent would drive up drug costs and
threaten the government's ambitious treatment programme, as the user cost
difference between the generic and the GSK drug is one to six.
Placed in an uncomfortable situation, to say the least, GSK
said on Monday that it does not intend to withdraw its application, first filed
more than eight years ago, but is ready to negotiate a voluntary licence with
the government of Thailand.
On Thursday, August 10, GSK issued another statement that it had actually
decided, prior to the demonstrations, to withdraw its patents and patent
applications directed to a specific formulation of Combivir. Yet, the same statement said: “Other patents
and patent applications relevant to Combivir and other GSK antiretrovirals are
not affected.” It also asserted that “GSK believes that focus on patents in
addressing the challenge of HIV/AIDS is misguided and counterproductive....The
root cause of many countries’ inability to address HIV/AIDS does not lie with the
patent system but with the consequences of poverty, and lack of political will,
leading to a lack of healthcare infrastructure and resources.” While this
statement may not be false in the abstract, in the context of Thailand it
sounds both inaccurate and patronizing.
Maybe the hard-line position adopted by GSK has to do
with another major drug discovery - this
one concerning a vaccine for the deadly H5N1 virus strain of bird flu, which is
scheduled for mass production in early 2007. Thailand is one of the countries
affected by the threat of epidemic and is most likely among governments with
which GSK is now discussing the conditions of sales and delivery of the
vaccine.
A naive person would think that GSK would approach these
discussions in a spirit of co-operation, but the company must know better.
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