Talk about poking big pharma in the eye. The new government caught big drugmakers off guard yesterday, because the unexpected move apparently applies to cancer and heart drugs, not just AIDS treatments.

“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 na Songkhla, who became health minister after a Sept. 19 military coup, told Reuters. “They are reaping colossal benefit from us.”

Shortly after, the new army-led government targeted Merck’s Efavirenz for AIDS. Now, local reports say licenses were issued for the Plavix blood thinner sold by Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Abbott Labs’ Kaletra anti-clotting agent.

The Thai government reportedly doesn’t plan to ”break” patents on every drug, just those that are expensive, life-saving treatments. But just how many and which ones? That’s not clear, yet. So the question for big pharma is whether it can defending its prices without causing yet another huge public outrcy.

Anyone remember South Africa?

And which country is next? Maybe compulsory licensing is the new incurable virus. [tags]Abbott Laboratories, AIDS, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Compulsory Licenses, Efevirenz, Kaletra, Merck, Patents, Plavix, Sanofi-Aventis, Thailand[/tags]