EU Trade Commissioner Sends Warning Letter to Thailand

    By Donald Zuhn --

As we reported in May, the U.S. Trade Representative issued a report on the state of intellectual property rights worldwide, identifying Thailand as one of twelve countries on a "priority watch list."  Thailand had been placed on the list as a result of its aggressive moves with respect to anti-AIDS drugs (and non-AIDS-related drugs such as Plavix®), compulsory licensing, and parallel imports.

Now it appears that the European Union has joined the fray.  As reported by the Financial Times on Friday, European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson (at lower left) sent a letter to the Thai government in July, warning that it should refrain from taking further action to force drugmakers to drop drug prices.  Mr. Mandelson called Thailand's demand that drug companies offer their drugs at no more than 5% above the generic cost "a matter of concern for the European Union" and labeled this approach "detrimental to the patent system, and so to innovation and the development of new medicines."  Mr. Mandelson stated that Thailand's recent moves contravened World Trade Organization regulations, and encouraged the Thai government to negotiate with drug companies, such as sanofi-aventis the maker of Plavix®, rather than issue compulsory licenses or import cheaper generic versions of their drugs.

According to the Financial Times, Thailand has yet to respond to Mr. Mandelson's letter.

For additional information regarding this and other related topics, please see:

• "Pharma Sanity Lacks Global Reach," July 13, 2007
• "Worldwide Drug Pricing Regime in Chaos," May 9, 2007
• "Not Getting It about Patented Drug Prices at The Wall Street Journal," May 6, 2007
• "Abbott Agrees to Offer AIDS Drug at Reduced Price," April 12, 2007
• "No New Abbott Medicines for Thailand," March 14, 2007
• "More Compulsory Licensing in Thailand," February 1, 2007
• "Thailand Compulsory License Still in the News," December 18, 2006