By Donald Zuhn —

Last week, Swiss drug maker Novartis AG agree to supply its cancer drug Glivec® at no cost to patients in Thailand in exchange for the Thai government’s agreement not to issue a compulsory license on Novartis’ patent.  Glivec® (imatinib), which is sold as Gleevac® (imatinib mesylate) in the U.S., is marketed for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST).

Prior to the agreement, the Thai government had issued compulsory licenses on at least six therapeutics:  Merck’s Efavirenz (for treating AIDS), sanofi-aventis’ Plavix (for treating heart disease), Abbott Laboratories’ Kaletra (for treating AIDS), Novartis Letrozole (for treating breast cancer), sanofi-aventis’ Docetaxel (for treating breast and lung cancer), and Roche’s Erlotinib (for treating lung, pancreatic, and ovarian cancer).

Under the agreement, Novartis will make Glivec® freely available to the three-quarters of the Thai population that is covered under the state’s healthcare program.  Dr. Vichai Chokevivat, Chairman of the Forum for Ethical Review Committees in Asia and the Western Pacific Region (FERCAP) and a member of the negotiating team that brokered the agreement, estimated that 900 Thai patients could receive Glivec® under the pact.  In the absence of the agreement, treatment with Glivec® would cost 1.3 million baht ($40,000) per year.  [Interestingly, a generic version of Glivec® made in India costs $50,000 baht ($1,538) per year.]

Novartis has declined to comment on the agreement with the Thai government.

For additional information on the agreement, please see:

• Reuters report

For information regarding this and other related topics, please see:

• "Neocolonialism in the Current Global Drug Pricing Regime?" August 19, 2007
• "More on the Global Drug Patenting Crisis," August 14, 2007
• "EU Trade Commissioner Sends Warning Letter to Thailand," August 13, 2007
• "Trying to Find a Solution to the Global Drug Pricing Crisis," July 16, 2007
• "Pharma Sanity Lacks Global Reach," July 13, 2007
• "Brasil Prevails in Dispute with Abbott over AIDS Drug Pricing," July 9, 2007
• "Africa (Still) Depending on the Kindness of Strangers in Anti-AIDS Drug Pricing," May 29, 2007
• "U.S. Trade Policy Becoming Less Pharma-Friendly," May 18, 2007
• "The "Unfairness" of World Intellectual Property Protection According to The New Yorker," May 17, 2007
• "Worldwide Drug Pricing Regime in Chaos," May 9, 2007
• "Not Getting It about Patented Drug Prices at The Wall Street Journal," May 6, 2007
• "A Modest Proposal Regarding Drug Pricing in Developing Countries," May 2, 2007
• "The Law of Unintended Consequences Arises in Applying TRIPS to Patented Drug Protection in Developing Countries," May 1, 2007
• "Abbott Agrees to Offer AIDS Drug at Reduced Price," April 12, 2007
• "No New Abbott Medicines for Thailand," March 14, 2007
• "More Compulsory Licensing in Thailand," February 1, 2007