Indonesia acts to over-ride patents on HIV drugs

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's government has taken steps to over-ride patents on a range of HIV drugs, highlighting a growing trend by Asian states to allow local production of cheap generic drugs that cut into sales of global pharmaceutical companies.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono quietly issued a decree last month authorizing government use of patents for seven HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B medicines held by the likes of Merck & Co, GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Abbott and Gilead.

The international trade body representing major drugmakers said the move set "a negative precedent". Individual companies affected did not provide immediate comment.

The decree states Indonesia implemented the measures to "meet the urgent need for antiviral and antiretroviral treatments".

An estimated 310,000 people are living with HIV in Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest economy. The prevalence rate among the 15 to 49-year-old population is 0.2 percent, according to 2009 statistics from the U.N. Aids website.

Unreported cases mean that the true figure could be higher.

Under World Trade Organisation rules member countries are permitted to take measures to over-ride patents when it is deemed necessary to protect public health.

Yudhoyono signed the decree without fanfare on September 3 and it was only recently highlighted by Western groups campaigning for increased access to drugs in the developing world.

The issuing of the decree follows a decision by India in March to strip German drugmaker Bayer of its exclusive rights to a cancer drug.

India's highest court also heard final arguments last month in a landmark case over drug patents involving Novartis's leukaemia drug Glivec that could change the rules for the country's healthcare sector and potentially curb its global role as a supplier of cut-price generic medicines.

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Indonesia acts to over-ride patents on HIV drugs