A lobby championing the cause of the powerful pharmaceutical companies ran full-page spreads in the morning newspapers with an eye-catching warning in large, bold text, which said: ''The Wrong Prescription for Thailand.''

The charge was supported by allegations that Bangkok's decision was fraught with errors, such as 'Thailand is refusing American and European medical technology at the expense of the poor and sick of Thailand.'' Another levelled by 'USA for Innovation', the organisation leading this pro-pharmaceutical company drive, declared that ''Most of Thailand's AIDS patients will not have access to the world's best medicines.''

But if those warnings were meant to trouble men like Boripat Dornmon, a 40-year-old who has been living with HIV for 11 years, they have made little headway. ''I disagree with this group, USA for Innovation. It shows that the big drug companies do not care about people like me,'' he said in an IPS interview.

It was a sentiment conveyed in the full-page advertisements taken out by a coalition of AIDS activists, humanitarian groups and a university to lash back at the pro-pharmaceutical lobby's campaign. The generic anti-retroviral (ARV) drug produced by the state's pharmaceutical body has ''made a phenomenal contribution in reducing the number of deaths among Thai AIDS patients from an average of 7,282 per year between 2001-2004 to 3,862 in 2005 and to 1,613 in 2006,'' states the advertisement.

And a meeting this week between officials from Abbott Laboratories and Thai officials from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed that Bangkok has not caved into pressure from the pharmaceutical lobby and the U.S. government over a groundbreaking move to secure cheaper drugs.

In fact, a health ministry official was quoted in the local media hinting that Bangkok may not have finished issuing compulsory licenses for ARVs produced by Abbott, given that a significantly lower priced generic version of Aluvia, a second-line anti-AIDS drug, is being offered by an Indian company.

''If the public health ministry chose to buy drugs at prices higher than offered by other sources, it must be able to give the public a good reason to justify its decision,'' says Vichai Chokewiwat, head of the health ministry's panel on compulsory licensing, in Tuesday's 'Bangkok Post' newspaper.

Thailand's efforts have also received a boost at the on-going World Health Assembly in Geneva where health minister Dr. Mongkol Na Songkhla is defending his country's case. ''International supporters have entered the debate, saying that they will support Thailand on the issue in every way,'' he was quoted as having told the state-run Thai News Agency (TNA).

''International organisations belonging to the Third World Network as well as national groups from Brazil, Germany, India, Malaysia and the Philippines had met with him and praised Thailand on the issue,'' adds TNA.

But it was only Abbott that hit back at Thailand's use of the special provisions under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for developing countries to break patents on drugs when faced with a public health emergency. In March the U.S. multinational refused to register seven new drugs here, including 'Aluvia,' a drug that can be easily stored in tropical climates.

Abbott's hopes of steamrolling over Thailand were dealt a blow last week from a quarter close to home -- the foundation of former U.S. president Bill Clinton. At a ceremony in New York, with the Thai health minister Mongkol by his side, Clinton endorsed Bangkok's decision to break the patents on the life-prolonging ARVs.

''No company will live or die because of high price premiums for AIDS drugs in middle-income countries, but patients may,'' Clinton said during an event that announced the foundation's success at further slashing the price of second-line drugs, such as Abbott's 'Kaletra' and 'Aluvia.'

While in April, Abbott announced it had reduced the price of 'Kaletra' in Thailand to 1,000 US dollars for annual dosage per patient, from the 2,200 US dollars for the same course it had charged a month before, the Clinton Foundation announced it had an even cheaper offer. Matrix Laboratories, an Indian drug maker, was producing the generic version of 'Aluvia' for 695 dollars for a year's dosage.

Thailand's lead in securing better care for its HIV/AIDS patients is in keeping with other pioneering efforts it has embraced to deal with this killer disease. This South-east Asian country has over 600,000 people infected with HIV and has recorded 300,000 deaths due to AIDS.

''We have to stand up to the pressure from the pharmaceutical companies and the U.S.,'' Jiraporn Limpananont, associate professor in the pharmaceutical science faculty at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, told IPS. ''If more countries issue compulsory licenses, it will get the point across that this is the right tool for developing countries.''

Source: IPS - Inter Press Service News Agency