BANGKOK, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Thailand's military-appointed government has issued compulsory licences for cheap versions of a heart disease and an AIDS drug, the health minister said on Thursday, a move likely to enrage global pharmaceutical giants. "The laws have been signed and they are now effective," Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla told Reuters. Mongkol said the drugs were for treatment of HIV-AIDS and heart disease, but he declined to confirm newspaper reports that they were Abbott's Kaletra <ABT.N> and Plavix, which is sold by Sanofi-Aventis <SNY.N><SASY.PA> and Bristol-Myers Squibb <BMY.N>. "We have to do this because we have so many patients to treat with so little budget. We can't watch our people die and their patents have been here for so long," Mongkol said.
