Impact of intellectual property rights on AIDS public health policy in Thailand.

After a committed policy to contain the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Thailand, another challenge must now be faced : that of providing accessible anti-AIDS treatment to those infected. This paper explores both the technical and legal aspects of a possible solution involving the provision of low-cost medicines by the Thai pharmaceutical industry. It shows that even if the efficient domestic drugs industry could participate in meeting this challenge, recent modifications in the intellectual property rights system hinder the large-scale local production of generic drugs. These institutional modifications can therefore be viewed as an obstacle to the continuation of public health policy as they impede the provision of affordable treatments