Thailand’s chief negotiator with big drugmakers battling Bangkok’s compulsory licensing policy has been removed from his post, Reuters reports.

Siriwat Thiptharadon, who heads Thailand’s FDA and who was an architect of the CL policy, was moved to an inactive post, according to Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsabb. “It’s not about the CL issue, it’s about appropriateness,” Chaiya told reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting, a remark he did not explain. Chatree Banchuen, a senior Health Ministry official, was appointed head of the FDA and lead negotiator on drug prices.

The move by the newly installed Thai government comes amid growing pressure from drugmakers and biotechs on Washington to downgrade its status as a trading partner. This follows the effort by Thailand’s previous Health Minister, Mongkol na Songkhla who two years ago overrode patents on two AIDS meds and a heart drug, and last month, three cancer meds. His argument was the meds were unaffordable for a national health plan covering about 80 percent of the country’s 63 million people.

Chaiya, a member of the new government which took power last month, has questioned the legality of the moves on the cancer drugs and said the
government could afford the annual cost of beween $24 million to $27 million. Pharma has accused Bangkok of stealing intellectual property and is lobbying the US Trade Rep to place Thailand on its Priority Foreign Country list.

Mongkol insisted he followed Thai laws and World Trade Organisation rules, which allow countries to override a drug patent if it would be critical to public health and as long as the meds are meant for domestic use.