Drug story version in Thailand

' Thailand's anti-AIDS version of drugs causes drug-resistant HIV virus '. A warning, black-and-white ad in the Thai daily newspaper The Nation reported on May 13 that 600,000 AIDS patients of the country were worried.

If they were optimistic last year when they learned of the government's subsidy for AIDS medicine, the information in the second largest newspaper in the country shook their hopes.

The drug version - the drug produced by international pharmaceutical manufacturers - is cheap, but the ad says 'The highest rate of drug resistance in Thailand in the world' is different from saying that taking that medicine, the more cure? Attached to the research results of Mahidol University, the drug version of GPO-Vir made the resistance rate increase from 39% to 58%.

However, the above evidence makes angry anti-AIDS activists and international humanitarian organizations angry. Government Pharmaceutical Company (GPO), which produces the drug version of GPO-Vir in Thailand, declines the argument of the advertisement.'If there is such a high rate of drug resistance, why do the number of people dying of AIDS decline?' - GPO leader Wanchai Suppajaturas responded.

Behind these arguments is a dull war without an end. In November 2006, the new Thai government allowed the GPO Company to produce and circulate the AIDS version of the drug by 2011.

Before Thailand there were Zambia and Indonesia ignoring the drug manufacturers of international pharmaceutical companies by adopting the World Trade Organization's ( 'for emergency community') product regulations. . However, Thailand was the first country to rely on this rule to turn green lights for hurdles for so long and also allow domestic imports of anti-AIDS drugs from India.

American medical students demonstrated against Abbott Pharmacy in Chicago on April 27.They stretched the banner " Stop Abbott's greed ", "Abbott don't play politics with Thai lives" (Photo: AP, TTO)

Of course, the international pharmaceutical companies vehemently protested when the product was heavily researched and . used the temple.'It is a prescription that the Thai Government has wrongly listed' - USA For Innovation organization, the unit behind the advertisement on The Nation, wallet.

Not only to advertise in major newspapers, this non-governmental organization also sent a letter to the US Congress calling on the United States to " straighten out " Thailand and Brazil because the country also followed Thailand closely last week. USA For Innovation also set up the website www.thailies.com with the mission ' to attract public opinion about Thailand's deception to steal US and European inventions '.

The supporters of the drug version also immediately protested. Dr. David Wilson, representative of the Borderless Physician Organization in Thailand - the sponsor of the GPO, said that it was all lies to make patients lose confidence in the version drug.'Look at the message behind, who is the beneficiary?' Mr. Nimitr Tien-udom, director of AIDS Accessibility, commented.

Find out, the director of USA For Innovation is Kenneth Adelman , who is also a senior consultant with Edelman Public Relations Worldwide (EPRW). And one of EPRW's biggest customers is Abbott Pharmaceutical, which last year was ignored by the Thai government for the patented AIDS drug Kaletra.

The story here is nothing difficult to understand through the above ' impressive ' advertising pages.

MINH HUY