Bangkok now says issuing compulsory licenses appears inevitable after talks with drugmakers aimed at cutting prices collapsed, The Bangkok Post reports. Siriwat Tiptaradol, secretary-general of Food and Drug Administration (FDA), plans to propose to Public Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla that Thailand proceed with licenses for three breast and lung cancer drugs, Taxoterel, produced by Sanofi-Aventis, Roche’s Tarceva, and Femara, which is sold by Novartis.

He was speaking after the fifth round of price negotiation talks with the drugmakers ended in stalemate yesterday. Siriwat says Novartis refused to lower the price of its Letrozole breast cancer med, even though the drugmaker offered an acceptable deal for its Gleevec leukemia drug. Under that deal, Novartis would provide free treatment to 900 patients under the universal healthcare scheme as a trade-off for exemption from the CL policy.

The panel wasn’t satisfied with an offer by Sanofi-Aventis to reduce the price of its lung and breast cancer drug Docetaxel by 10 percent as a trade-off for a patent override, however. Roche didn’t send any reps to the negotiations.

Siriwat, who chaired yesterday’s talks, told the Post he was unhappy with the results of the final discussions and would submit this week a negotiation report to the health minister who would make a decision on whether to import generic versions of the cancer drugs for emergency use.

The original version of Gleevec costs 900 baht per tablet compared to the generic version’s 50 to 70 baht. The injectable Docetaxel costs 26,500 baht per 80mg dose, compared to 4,000 baht for the generic. The retail price of Erlotinib is 2,800 to 3,000 baht per tablet compared to the generic’s 275 to 735 per tablet. And Femara costs about 230 baht per tablet but the generic version is priced at only 7 to 10 baht. One baht equals roughly 3 cents.