Thais Make Cheap Generic Bird Flu Drug

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Thais Make Cheap Generic Bird Flu Drug

Marwaan Macan-Markar, Inter Press Service (IPS) Fri Aug 4, 2:01 PM ET

BANGKOK, Aug 4 (IPS) - Having succeeded in producing cheap generic

drugs to help people with HIV/ AIDS enjoy longer lives,

Thailand is now ready with generics capable of helping its citizens

fight the potential onslaught of another deadly virus -- bird flu.

The announcement by Thai scientists that they now have a generic

version of Tamiflu, the only known anti-viral drug capable of

stopping an epidemic of avian influenza, could not have been better

timed. It offers hope for cheaper treatment just as the country is

grappling with a virulent outbreak of the H5N1 strain of the virus in

its poultry population, after a seven-month lull.

''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.

The GPO, a state agency, has been at the vanguard of producing cheap

generic 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.

On Thursday, when this latest Thai success was announced at a press

conference, the GPO also confirmed how cheaper the local drug would

be. The generic drug, to be made available through the public

hospitals, will cost 70 baht (1.85 dollar) per capsule, almost half

the price of the brand-name version of Tamiflu, which costs 120 baht

(3.15 dollars) per capsule.

The period that the two Thai scientists took to produce this generic

anti-viral drug - six months -- saw concerns being expressed in many

quarters about the world having an inadequate supply of the patented

version of Tamiflu, produced by the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche.

That followed pressure on Roche to give up its right to hold the

Tamiflu patent. The Swiss manufacturer's critics, including a ranking

member of the U.S. Senate, saw such attempts to defend the right of

the Tamiflu patent in the wake of a possible pandemic triggered by

bird flu as a blatant display of a multinational placing profits over

the lives of people.

For developing countries in South-east Asia, the epicenter of the

deadly virus, such concern about the short supply of Tamiflu was

further heightened when they were sidelined by the richer countries

in the West to buy out the limited supply of the brand-name anti-

viral that Roche had on offer.

Currently, Thailand has stockpiled one million doses of the anti-

viral drug; both the original version and a generic version made from

ingredients imported from India. The GPO hopes to add another one

million capsules of its own version of Tamiflu during its initial

production run.

''It is perfectly okay for countries to produce generic drugs. It

means that the drugs are available to deal with the first phase of an

emergency,'' Harsaran Pandey, spokesperson of the World Health

Organisation's (WHO) South and East Asia office, said during a

telephone interview from New Delhi. ''But no country -- even one as

rich as the U.S.-- is ever going to have stockpiles for all its

citizens.''

Public health authorities have raised the alarm that bird flu, if not

stopped at the source through a range of preventive measures,

including proper medical care for patients, could trigger a global

pandemic. Such an eventuality, of a new flu virus being passed

between humans, could kill millions.

The global humanitarian agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) is also

throwing its weight behind the GPO's latest contribution to generic

drugs. ''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,''

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.''

But set against the hope that the GPO is offering to stave off

chances of a pandemic comes reports from an increasing number of

provinces in northern and central Thailand about the rapid spread of

bird flu since July. By Friday, animal health experts confirmed that

poultry in fifteen provinces had been hit by the H5N1 strain of the

virus.

The public health ministry has put 164 patients on a suspected bird

flu list. It follows the death of a 17-year-old boy last month, the

15th human fatality due to bird flu since the beginning of 2004.

Thailand is one of ten countries where people have died from close

contact with contaminated poultry. The current death toll stands at

134 out of 232 reported cases since the winter of 2003, according to

the WHO. The worst hit countries, in human terms, are Vietnam and

Indonesia, where 42 people have died due to avian flu in each place.

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