For Immediate Release: October 9, 2002

Contact:
Karyn Kaplan, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission,
(646) 298-6271 mobile
Asia Russell, Health GAP,
(267) 475-2645 mobile

(New York) Advocacy groups responded today to a major legal victory for HIV positive people in Thailand fighting for medicines access. According to activists, the court ruling set the stage for a second case-filed today in Bangkok-which could result in the revocation of a US drug company's patent rights on a key AIDS medicine, the buffered formulation of ddI (brand name Videx).

People living with HIV lodged a case against Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), claiming the company only had exclusive rights to manufacture ddI in a dose range of 5-100 mg. On October 1, the Thai Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court ruled in favor of the activists, stripping Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) of its exclusive right to manufacture and market buffered ddI in Thailand. According to the court, BMS illegally amended its Thai patent application three years after it was filed, to expand the dose covered in the patent claim and broaden its monopoly.

"At every step we have had to fight for treatment access and fight for the right to live," said Paisan Tan-Ud, founding chairperson of the Thai Network of People living with HIV/AIDS, an organization involved in the court battle. "We have exposed the killing greed of the drug companies. We have exposed their illegal activities, and we will continue to fight until access is a reality for all people living with HIV in Thailand."

The October 1 ruling clears the way for generic competitors to manufacture doses greater than 100 mg. Experts say this will increase drug access in Thailand by cutting the price of buffered ddI tablets from approximately 40 baht to 20 baht per tablet ($1USD = 43 baht).

"For years BMS's dirty patent tricks have blocked drug access, causing needless suffering in death for Thai people," said Karyn Kaplan, HIV/AIDS Project Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. "Thai activists and people living with HIV have exposed Bristol's illegal dealings and have shown that ordinary people and consumer organizations can fight drug companies' deadly patent policies in court--and win."

In a related court case filed today by people with HIV and consumer organizations, plaintiffs challenged the validity of BMS' patent on buffered ddI. BMS should not have been granted a patent for buffered ddI, according to the activists, because adding an antacid buffer to ddI does not constitute an innovation. The plaintiffs are calling for the revocation of BMS' patent on buffered ddI. "Putting patent rights before the human right to medicines is unacceptable," said Asia Russell of Health GAP. "BMS will use every trick in the book to create illegitimate patent monopolies in Thailand-unless people with AIDS stop them."

"BMS should be forced to pay damages to the government and to consumers who wasted money on overpriced ddI," said Tan-Ud. "But no amount of damages can bring back the people who died with AIDS during the time of BMS' manufactured monopoly on ddI-who died too poor to afford Bristol's prices."