MYANMAR needs to be prepared to minimise any negative pricing effects involving pharmaceuticals when it implements international agreements on trade related intellectual property rights (TRIPS), a workshop in Yangon has been told.

Mr Suchart Chongprasert, a consultant to a project assessing the impact of TRIPS agreements on public health in ASEAN countries, was speaking at a workshop held to discuss the issue at the Grand Plaza Parkroyal hotel on August 12.

The workshop focussed mainly on the impact of TRIPS agreements on drugs used to treat HIV-AIDS. The regional project is being funded by the US-based Rockefeller Foundation.

Mr Suchart said Myanmar would need to adopt measures necessary to protect public health when TRIPS agreements were implemented under the country’s obligations to the World Trade Organisation.

Myanmar’s WTO membership obligations require it to upgrade laws and regulations for patents on pharmaceutical products by the end of 2015.

“Beyond 2015, you will have a big problem if you cannot afford expensive patented drugs owing to the monopoly of certain companies protected by the laws,” Mr Suchart said.

He said Myanmar would need to include provisions in trade agreements that allowed it to import generic drugs from countries that produced them more cheaply than patented products.

Compulsory licensing should also be exercised to allow the government to grant third parties the right to produce drugs if negotiations failed with companies holding patent rights.

The manager of the government’s National AIDS Program, Dr Min Thwe, said a National Project Coordination Committee was formed on August 5 to implement activities under the project. He said similar committees had been established in other ASEAN countries.

Dr Min Thwe also said more anti-retroviral treatments would be made available to AIDS patients.

The Ministry of Health provides anti-retroviral treatments free of charge to 200 patients in collaboration with non-government organisation Artsen Zonder Grenzen (Medecins Sans Frontieres – Holland) and is planning to expand the program to 1000 patients by the end of 2005.