Thais To Boycott Abbott; Who’s Next?

Consumer groups plan to boycott all Abbott drugs sold in Thailand, including meds the drugmaker promised to continue selling. This comes after Abbott vowed to yank applications to sell new meds in the country, a move made in response to a government decision to issue a compulsory license for its Kaletra AIDS drugs and two other meds sold by different drugmakers.

“The decision to withdraw its patent for new drugs is an unfair trade practise and irresponsible to society,” says Saree Ongsomwang from the Consumer Foundation. And Rosana Tositrakoon of the Thai Holistic Health Foundation promises that “until the company changes its position, it will face tougher and tougher boycotts.”

The move is unlikely to seriously crimp Abbott sales, but that’s not the issue. This raises the heat on the drugmaker and calls for a boycott are likely to spread elsewhere. Like Novartis, Abbott now faces the thorny problem of sorting out a patent dispute without losing the public relations war. And it is a war, the kind drugmakers almost never win.

By the way, so far, Abbott has NO statement on its web site about this issue.

Story from Agence France-Presse.
Abbott To Limit Sales in Thailand from The Chicago Tribune.
Doctors Without Borders blasts Abbott.
[tags]Abbott Laboratories, Patents, Thailand[/tags]