Thailand, big pharma wrangle over cancer drugs

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand is still talking to threemajor drug firms about cutting the price of certain cancerdrugs but might make the medicines itself if it does notreceive adequate discounts, a top health official said onTuesday.
"It will depend on negotiations with drug manufacturers,"Siriwat Thiptharadol, secretary general of the Food and DrugAdministration, told Reuters.
The Bangkok Post reported that talks about requested pricecuts for breast and lung cancer drugs Docetaxel, produced bySanofi-Aventis, Roche's Erlotinib and Novartis's Letrozole hadbroken down.
Docetaxel is also known as Taxotere, Erlotinib as Tarcevaand Letrozole as Femara.
The newspaper said this made "inevitable" the imposition ofa "compulsory license" (CL), under which Thailand would be ableto make the drugs itself without worrying about its World TradeOrganization patent obligations.
However, Siriwat said the talks were still moving along.
"If they agree to cut the prices further to an affordablelevel, I think the Health Minister will not need to implementCL," Siriwat said.
Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla, who has alreadyoverridden patents on two AIDS drugs and a heart medicine, didnot answer his mobile phone.
Novartis' Thailand manager, Sirilak Suteekul, describedtalks about accessibility to Letrozole in Thailand, where therean estimated 2,000 potential patients, as "very healthy" andnothing out of the ordinary.
"I see this as moving forward," she said.
Representatives of the other two drug companies were notimmediately available for comment.
Mongkol, appointed by the army after last year's militarycoup against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has upsetinternational pharmaceutical companies with a campaign to forcethem to give poorer countries cheaper drugs.
With a general election due on December 23, his days inoffice are numbered and he appears to be determined to squeezeout more concessions during his final days in office.
"By the end of this month, I will summarize the result ofthe talks to the Health Minister for consideration," Siriwatsaid, adding that the companies were still preparing to submittheir final price proposals.
"I think the issue should be completed within thisgovernment before the election."
(Reporting by Khettiya Jittapong and Ed Cropley; Editing byMichael Battye)