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Thailand
former health
minister Mongkol Na Songkla is of the view that developing countries
should join hands to jointly secure patents for essential drugs to
allow them to produce original drugs by themselves instead of using
the compulsory licensing mechanism to break patents on expensive
drugs.
“If
we help each other
to support universities to conduct research on drugs at the primary
stage, the price of drugs will not be expensive. We could provide
useful research to developing countries around the world to own the
patent and produce drugs on their own without paying for marketing
costs,” Mongkol said. “This is not the responsibility of one
country but we have to do it as a network.”
He
was speaking at a
three-day meet on “Asia Pacific Consultation on FTAs and their
Impact on Access to Medicinal Drugs” organised by Health Action
International Asia Pacific.
According
to Mongkol, the
government and civil society should collaborate to allocate funds to
support top universities to conduct research and develop essential
drugs to treat orphans with diseases in developing countries. They
would then own patents to produce original drugs and would not have
to break trade laws. Currently, major drug companies own patents on
some of the most crucial drugs discovered by state universities.
Mongkol's
call follows
increasing moves to use compulsory licensing under the WTO's
agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.
He
said many
pharmaceutical companies based in India that produce generic drugs
were now suspending production as the Indian Government was complying
with WTO rules not to break patents on original drugs. This would
make it hard for developing countries to find and import generics if
they imposed compulsory licensing on drugs deemed essential and
lifesaving.
“To
complete
implementation of compulsory licensing of essential drugs under the
WTO's international trade agreement we must have a resource to import
generic drugs. If not it would be difficult to use this mechanism to
help people to access expensive drugs,” said Mongkol, who imposed
compulsory licensing for HIV/Aids, heart and cancer drugs to help
save tens of thousands of lives. (Source: The Nation)
August 27, 2008
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