Thailand threatens to further override drug patents to give Thai people more affordable generic medicine: NewsTarget.com

Thailand has stepped up its challenge to drug companies, saying it will continue to override corporate patents and make generic drugs until the pharmaceutical industry lowers its prices.

The south Asian country, which last week broke patents for the HIV/AIDS retroviral drug Kaletra and the blood-thinning medication Plavix, said that it is considering granting more compulsory licenses to make generics within five major groups of medicine. These include anticancer drugs, heart medications and antibiotics.

Thailand's distribution of licenses to make the drugs is permitted by World Trade Organization rules, which say a country can declare a "national emergency" to produce the drugs and override held patents.

"As a matter of fact, we don't want to use the compulsory licensing policy because we don't want to upset the pharmaceutical industry. However, we have to think about the many Thais who need the medicines badly but cannot have them,'' Thailand's Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla told the Bangkok Post.

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Thailand challenges Big Pharma, threatens to further override patents to give Thai people more affordable generic medicine

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