The report that Thai scientists were successful in making the generic version of the bird flu antiviral drug, Roche (RHHBY)’s Tamiflu, not for commercial purposes but for Thailand’s security really caught my attention.
IPS News reported:
''It will not be for commercial purposes. This is for our security, to have the tablets available,'' Dr. Sirirerk Songsivilai, deputy director of the national science and technology development agency, told IPS.
''We have the capacity to produce it locally and we want to increase our stockpile.'' ''This success will help Thailand in (the event) of a bird flu outbreak if Tamiflu is in short supply,'' Dr. Mongkol Jiwasantikarn, director of the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO), was quoted as having told 'The Nation' newspaper on Friday.
Thailand’s GPO (a state agency) has been producing cheap drugs for Thai patients. In 2002, it added to its impressive record by offering a generic version of anti-AIDS drugs that cost 30 US dollars for a course of medicines per month. At the time, a monthly dosage of anti-AIDS drugs produced by the pharmaceutical giants in the industrialised world and sold here amounted to 450 dollars.
The generic Tamiflu, which will be made available through Thailand’s public hospitals, will only cost 70 baht (1.85 dollar) per capsule. That is almost half the price of the brand-name version of Tamiflu, which costs 120 baht (3.15 dollars) per capsule.
Isn’t this the very essence of why drugs are being developed?--to save the sick world especially in the event of epidemics and pandemics?
''If a country has the capacity to produce generic drugs for an illness that affects a significant number of its people, then it should go ahead. They have to be good drugs, though,'' Paul Cawthorne, the Thai country coordinator of the Belgium branch of MSF, told IPS.
''Roche cannot use the patent protection argument here because it is not in a position to meet the current demand,'' he added. ''If they try to defend their patent, they would lose the battle in the public sphere.''
Pharmaceutical giants should not only think of patents and profits. A pharmaceutical breakthrough should be shared at a low price (if not none) to save lives.
But then it is just my wishful thinking. That may be bad for business.
What do you think?
Source: IPS News
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