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news.US pharmaceutical company Abbott Laboratories is planning to stop launching new medicines in Thailand following the government's decision to override international drug patents.
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The decision will not affect Abbott drugs which are already on sale in Thailand. The military-backed government issued “compulsory licenses” in January allowing the generic manufacture of Abbott's AIDS drug Kaletra and Plavix, Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb's blood-thinner.
The decision, although legal under World Trade Organization rules, shocked the drugmakers. The Thai government said that the move was necessary to produce cheap medication to help solve the country's AIDS problem.
“Thailand has chosen to break patents on numerous medicines, ignoring the patent system. As such, we've elected not to introduce new medicines there,” Abbott spokeswoman Jennifer Smoter told Reuters.
The WTO rules state that governments can manufacture, import and sell generic versions of drugs in the case of a national public health emergency. Several other countries have already taken these steps, including Brazil, especially in the case of HIV medicines.