Impact of the World Trade Organization TRIPS Agreement on the pharmaceutical industry in Thailand

The 1994 World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) established minimum universal standards in all areas of intellectual property. It is intended to implement these standards globally through a WTO enforcement mechanism. The present article proposes a strategy for alleviating the potentially negative impact of TRIPS in Thailand in relation to the following: purchasers; prescribers and dispensers; producers; products; price control; patent-to-third-party; parallel imports; power of the customer; patentable new drugs; personnel; and prevention policies. The following TRIPS provisions are pertinent to the pharmaceutical industry in Thailand: the limited term of product and process patents; the conditions of protection; and the broad scope for compulsory licensing and enforcement procedures in the national patent system.