Never-ending AIDS patent wars

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.