US pharma giant gives up AIDS drug patent in Thailand

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2004

BANGKOK (AFP) — A US pharmaceutical firm has given up its patent in Thailand to produce a generic AIDS drug in a historic move that could see drug costs plunge, activists said.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) reached agreement Friday to return its patent to produce the anti-retroviral drug didanosine (ddi) in tablet form, granted by Thailand's Department of Intellectual Properties in 1998.

The decision marked a major victory for activists in AIDS-battered Thailand who fought a two-year legal battle to get the patent revoked, and as the country gears up to triple the number of HIV/AIDS patients receiving anti-retroviral (ARV) medicines in 2004.

"This was an important result, and we think this case serves as an example for other countries of the world," Nimit Tien...