19 February 2008
Dear Minister Chaiya Sasomsab, Newspapers reported that your government is in the process of reviewing several compulsory licenses recently issued by the previous government. At the end of 2006, Thailand decided to make use of its right to issue compulsory licenses in order to ensure access to medicines for its population and the sustainability of its universal medical coverage.
In doing so, Thailand demonstrated its sense of accountability toward its patients. By implementing a thoughtful policy, based on the country’s needs in terms of access to medicines, its experts and political leaders offered an example to other countries, showing that it is possible for developing countries to respect international intellectual property agreements while at the same time using lawful flexibilities when needed (as allowed by the TRIPS Agreement and restated by the Doha Declaration).
Through the media, we also took note of the fact that the brand-name pharmaceutical industry and its followers are trying to influence your newly elected government by raising their usual threats (to push for Thailand to be placed on the "Priority Foreign Country" list or for its GSP privileges to be limited, to reduce investment in the country, etc). This immoral behavior leads us to make the following comments:
First, the pharmaceutical industry is not omnipotent and cannot force the USTR to go against the US law itself, or to simply comply with its desires. Recent changes in US trade policy have demonstrated this (1). In the meantime, under the influence of the Democrats, congressional investigations of pharmaceutical products and companies’ practices are more and more numerous (2), which seems to suggest that the pharmaceutical lobby is losing influence. Moreover, conceding to this pressure will only incentivize them to perpetually raise their demands and further confiscate people’s rights and countries’ sovereignty.
Second, the brand-name pharmaceutical industry and its supporters are wrong. The Thai health policy is fully legal and is greatly useful to the population. A number of individuals, groups, and countries have expressed their support for the Thai initiative and are ready to do so again. Such supporters stood up in Doha once, and they will not accept the reign of terror that the pharmaceutical industry is now again trying to impose.
With this letter, therefore, we would like to express our support for your efforts and our hope that Thailand will not be intimidated and will pursue its policy, basing its decisions on the interest of its people above all else.
(1)For examples of the changes made by the USTR in the US-Peru FTA, see: http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=811
(2) See for examples:http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/democrats-work-to-subpoena-fda-investigators-2008-01-29.htmlhttp://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=1517DB62-3048-5C12-00017FE1FCEC954Fhttp://www.pharmalot.com/2008/01/the-democrats-are-coming/http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/01/16/congress-investigates-vytorin-ads/http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/elizabethberry/Cvms
(3) In addition to the numerous groups and NGOs on the five continents, Former President Bill Clinton, members of the US Congress, representatives of France,the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, India, Malaysia, Philippines, among others praised the Thai policy on compulsory licensing.
