Victory for HIV carriers as Glaxo drops patent bid

After being pressured by Thai and international activists for years, GlaxoSmithKline has withdrawn its patent application for a key anti-retroviral drug in Thailand and India.

In a letter sent to the Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, the giant drug firm's Bangkok office said its headquarters had ordered its intellectual-property division to withdraw patent application for Combid in the two countries.

"It is a victory for the people," said Paul Cawthorne, director of Doctors Without Borders' Thailand office.

He said the decision was very important to HIV-positive Thais and meant they could continue to use the affordable generic version of Combid made by the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO). And it was very important to the world that India would be able to continue to manufacture the generic drug Zilarvir for developing countries.

About 500 Thai and international activists demonstrated outside the office of Glaxo Thailand in Bangkok last week demanding the withdrawal of the patent application.

For seven months, activists had protested at all agencies related to the issue, including the Ministry of Commerce and the Department of Intellectual Property. Similar protests also took place in India.

Although its headquarters had ordered the withdrawal in June, Glaxo Thailand had not been informed, said a staff member who asked not to be named.

"Intellectual-property issues are the business of headquarters and a country office will never be informed," said the source.

Combid is a combination of two anti-retroviral drugs, Lamivudine and Zidovudine. Protesters claimed Glaxo had no right to apply for a patent for Combid because the combination of two drugs did not constitute an invention. If a patent had been granted to Glaxo, GPO would have been forced to stop manufacturing Zilarvir.