Bernard Kouchner in Thailand : Siding with Big Pharma or siding with people with AIDS?

Soumis par Dirk Van Duppen le mar, 30/10/2007 - 16:43

Today, Tuesday, October 30th, Bernard Kouchner, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, will travel to Thailand. As a former humanitarian doctor, Bernard Kouchner is going to have to take sides. Will he support the big pharmaceutical companies, or on the contrary will he stand by the Thai patients in their fight for affordable generic drugs ?

On the 27th of March 2007, the previous French Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Philippe Douste-Blazy, issued a statement backing the decision of the Thai
government to distribute generic versions of two major antiretroviral drugs
againts aids to its sick (see the French government wedbsite [1]). As
pharmaceutical companies were accusing Thailand of violating international
patent law, France has used its statement to affirm the opposite

However, since March, France seems to have made a complete U-turn about
Thailand. Indeed, France pushed the European Commission to exert pressure
against Thailand in support of French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi (see the July
18th letter from the European Commissioner to Thailand [2], that mentions
precisely the French pharmaceutical company's blockbuster drug, which Thailand
has decided to import as a generic).

Moreover, France has remained silent when US pharmaceutical company Abbott Labs
publicly announced a deadly blockade, against all Thai AIDS patients, from
purchasing its lifesaving HIV medication Aluvia. Abbott had justified the
deadly blockade as a means to force the Thai government to grant it a monopoly
on sales of Aluvia in Thailand (see Abbott statement in the Wall Street Journal
ofMarch 13th 2007 [3])

Act Up-Paris demands :
that Bernard Kouchner reaffirm France's support for the Thai government's
decision to resort to generic competition as a means to ensure maximum access
to treatment (as the previous minister of Foreign Affairs did last March)

- that Bernard Kouchner condemn Abbott publicly and state that it is immoral for
a pharmaceutical company to deprive patients of a lifesaving drug as a ploy to
force the government to grant a monoply on sales of this drug.

Contact : Jérôme Martin + 33 6 94 47 20 92

NOTES:
[1] French government statement supporting the Thai compulsory licenses:
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/actions-france_830/financements-innovan...
[2] Letter of European Trade Commisser to Thailand against generic competition
to Sanofi, acquired and published online by Act Up Paris :
http://www.actupparis.org/IMG/pdf/Lettre_de_Mandelson_--_la_Tha--lande.pdf
[3] 'Abbott Won't Launch New Drugs In Thailand After Patent Revocation', by
Nicholas Zamiska, Wall Street Journal, 13.03.2007,
www.aegis.com/news/wsj/2007/WJ070304.html

Contact : Jérôme Martin + 33 6 84 47 20 92

NOTES:
[1]
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/actions-france_830/financements-innovan...
[2] http://www.actupparis.org/IMG/pdf/Letter_from_Mandelson_to_Thailand.pdf
http://www.actupparis.org/IMG/pdf/Letter_from_Aides_Actup-Paris_to_Mande...

[3] 'Abbott Won't Launch New Drugs In Thailand After Patent Revocation', by
Nicholas Zamiska, Wall Street Journal, 13.03.2007,
www.aegis.com/news/wsj/2007/WJ070304.html