(Reuters) -
Indonesia's government has taken steps to over-ride patents for HIV drugs,
following the lead of other Asian states that have allowed the production of
cheap generic drugs that cut into the sales of global pharmaceutical companies.
President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono quietly issued a decree last month authorizing the use
of patents for seven HIV/AIDS and hepatitis medicines held by the likes of
Merck & Co, GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Abbott and Gilead.
The
companies affected did not provide immediate comment.
The decree
states Indonesia implemented the measures to "meet the urgent need for
antiviral and antiretroviral treatments".
An
estimated 310,000 people are living with HIV in Indonesia, Southeast Asia's
largest economy. The prevalence rate among the 15 to 49-year-old population is
0.2 percent, according to 2009 statistics from the U.N. Aids website.
Unreported
cases mean that the true figure could be higher.
Under World
Trade Organization rules member countries are permitted to take measures to
over-ride patents when it is deemed necessary to protect public health.
Yudhoyono
signed the decree without fanfare on September 3 and it was only recently
highlighted by Western groups campaigning for increased access to drugs in the
developing world.
The issuing
of the decree follows a decision by India in March to strip German drugmaker
Bayer of its exclusive rights to a cancer drug.
India's
highest court also heard final arguments last month in a landmark case over
drug patents involving Novartis's leukaemia drug Glivec that could change the
rules for the country's healthcare sector and potentially curb its global role
as a supplier of cut-price generic medicines.
At the same
time, China in June overhauled parts of its intellectual property laws to allow
local production of patented medicines in another initiative likely to unnerve
foreign pharmaceutical companies.
The amended
patent law allows Beijing to issue compulsory licenses to eligible companies to
produce generic versions of patented drugs during state emergencies, or unusual
circumstances, or in the interests of the public.
If
implemented to the full, the measure taken by Indonesia would introduce
widespread generic competition and generate big cost savings in the world's
fourth most populous country.
It is not
the first time that Indonesia has made an order giving government control over
HIV drugs but the latest decree goes further than earlier ones in 2004 and
2007.
"Indonesia
has set an important precedent, not just for the people living with HIV within
its country, who have been campaigning for this, but also for other developing
countries," said Michelle Childs of Medecins Sans Frontieres.
"This
is one of the widest licenses issued by a government and rightly reflects the
reality that a range of treatment options are needed," Childs said.
(Additional
reporting by Ben Hirschler in London; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
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