Key words: HIV/AIDS; TRIPS agreements; public health;
industrial policy; intellectual property rights.
Abstract
After a committed policy to contain the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic
in Thailand, another challenge must now be faced: that of providing accessible
anti-AIDS treatment to those infected. This paper explores both the technical
and legal aspects of a possible solution involving the provision of low-cost
medicines by the Thai pharmaceutical industry. It shows that even if the efficient
domestic drugs industry could participate in meeting this challenge, recent modi-
fications in the intellectual property rights system hinder the large-scale local
production of generic drugs. These institutional modifications can therefore be
viewed as an obstacle to the continuation of public health policy as they impede
the provision of affordable treatments.