By Darren Schuettler BANGKOK, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Thailand's military-appointed government will not override a patent on the cancer drug Glivec after Swiss maker Novartis AG <NOVN.VX> agreed to supply it free to hundreds of Thai patients, an official said on Friday. Vichai Chokevivat, a member of the negotiating team pressing drug firms to cut their prices, said the leukaemia medicine would be made available under a state healthcare programme covering 48 million of Thailand's 63 million people. He estimated 900 patients could receive the free drug, known generically as imatinib and also sold as Gleevec, a daily dose tablet which normally costs 1.3 million baht ($40,000) per year. An Indian-made generic version costs 50,000 baht per year for an individual treatment. "Novartis agreed to supply the drug at no charge through GIPAP," Vichai said, referring to the Glivec International Patient Assistance Programme which provides the drug at no cost to eligible patients in developing countries. The Health Ministry said in a statement that Thai patients with a household income of less than 1.7 million baht would be eligible for the programme. Novartis declined to comment on the deal announced in the final days of the interim government appointed by the military after a 2006 coup. Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla has approved compulsory licences on three other cancer medicines which would allow Thailand to make or buy cheaper copycat versions. They include Letrozole, a breast cancer medicine made by Novartis, the breast and lung cancer drug Docetaxel by Sanofi-Aventis <SASY.PA> and Roche's <ROG.VX> Erlotinib, used for treating lung, pancreatic and ovarian cancer. Major drug makers were stunned in late 2006 when Thailand, arguing it could not afford patented drugs for its national healthcare scheme, launched one of the biggest challenges to their patent rights in years. Bangkok overrode the patent on Merck's <MRK.N> AIDS drug Efavirenz, enabling Thailand to buy a cheaper generic version from an Indian firm. Months later it did the same on a Sanofi-Aventis heart medicine and an AIDS drug made by Abbott Laboratories <ABT.N>, which refused to register several new medicines in Thailand. The government won praise from health activists, but drug makers and their allies denounced what they called the theft of intellectual property rights. The United States put Thailand on its "priority watch list", citing weaker respect for patents. With a pro-business coalition government due to take power as early as next week, Thailand's Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association is betting on a change in policy. It said this week the new government "understands that collaboration with all stakeholders in the health sector is needed to address the real issues affecting the quality of healthcare and development of innovation-based industries". $1= 32.94 Baht) (Editing by Michael Battye)
Storks are silhouetted at sunset in Thailand's Ayutthaya Province, nearly 80 km (50 miles) north of Bangkok, January 25, 2008. REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang (THAILAND) ...
