Bangkok - Dozens of HIV/AIDS activists on Thursday demonstrated outside the US Embassy in Bangkok against Washington's decision to put Thailand on its priority watch list to retaliate against generic manufacturing of US-patented anti-viral drugs. About 50 activists from the AIDS ACCESS Foundation and Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS rallied at the embassy compound to protest against US pharmaceutical giants that allegedly pressured the US Trade Representative Office [USTR] to put Thailand on it "Priority Watch List" for intellectual property rights infringements in response to Thailand's decision to issue compulsory licences on three drugs.
"Evil USA stop threatening access to treatment in Thailand," said one of the banners.
Some protesters rebuked the US trade pressure while praising the Thai government for standing up to the pharmaceutical industry.
"We condemn America because they only think of their own interests," said Nimitr Tien-Udom, director of Aids Access Foundation. He said AIDS activists in Thailand had been calling on governments to enforce compulsory licencing on anti-viral drugs since 1999, but their appeals had been ignored by previous administrations.
There are an estimated 800,000 people living with HIV in Thailand, and more than one million have died from AIDS since it was first detected in the population in 1986. Of the 800,000 HIV patients some 100,000 patients receive medical treatment with anti-viral drugs but of these some 10 per cent are already drug-resistant.
Thailand's Health Ministry in November, last year, implemented compulsory licensing for Efavirenz, a US-made anti-HIV drug that is used by patients who have developed resistance to the normal HIV/AIDS anti-viral cocktail.
The ministry earlier issued compulsory licensing on two heart disease drugs, immediately drawing criticism from the US pharmaceutical industry.
Although compulsory licensing, essentially granting local licenses to imitate certain crucial drugs, is allowed under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, it is usually resorted to only in cases of medical emergencies.
Thailand's unorthodox use of the compulsory clause, which HIV/AIDS victims and even the World Health Organization (WHO) have condoned, was one of the main reasons the US on Monday put the kingdom on its "priority watch list," a status which may have an adverse impact on Thai exports to the US in the near future.
"The USA is a developed country but their brains have not been developed," said Virat Poorahong, chairman of Thai network of People Living with HIV/AIDS.
