In office just a few days and already Chaiya Sasomsab, the new health minister, is under fire from his predecessor, medical experts and health activists for his plan to review the compulsory licensing of cancer meds, The Bangkok Post reports.

The former public health minister, Mongkol na Songkhla, who approved licenses to override patents on four cancer meds last month, says Chaiya has the right to conduct a review, but it would be wrong if the number of cancer patients was the only factor considered. Mongkol says that about 15,000 people with lung or liver cancer needed the drugs, but ending compulsory licensing would have a severe impact on their families and relatives, because many would be forced into bankruptcy if they had to help pay for the costly patented drugs.

Chaiya, meanwhile, says he would welcome a meeting with representatives from drugmakers to discuss the issue. The ministry’s announcement of compulsory licensing for the four drugs may please the public, he says, but it was not right, according to the Post.

However, Rosana Tositrakul, chair of the alliance of 30 NGOs against corruption, questioned Chaiya’s move to review the schemes and charged that a reversal would spark public speculation about conflicts of interest with drugmakers.

Nimit Thien-udom, the director of Aids Access Foundation, said networks of Aids, kidney and cancer patients, consumer protection advocates and academics had requested meetings with Chaiya to discuss the matter. ”We want to know his stance on the issue. We are hopeful that his review will provide good results and benefit the public, and patients in particular,” Nimit tells the paper. ”If he ends the compulsory licensing schemes without good reason, society will question his suitability to be public health minister.”

Paul Cawthorne, the head of mission of Medicine Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), says it’s too soon for the minister to comment on the issue as he had only just taken up the job. Chaiya might be under pressure from economic ministries, he suggests, an allusion to reports that PhRMA is meeting with Thai officials and lobbying the US Trade Rep to take tougher measures against Bangkok. Last year, Thailand was placed on the US Trade Rep’s Priority Watch list.