Thai Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Assoc calls for the government to revoke the GPO's special privileges on hospitals buying from it

The special purchase procedures enjoyed by Thailand's Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO), the state drug company, must be revoked, in order to support free market competition and help local manufacturers survive amid fierce competition with foreign pharmaceutical companies, argued Chernporn Tengamnuay, president of the Thai Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (TPMA), reported by the local newspaper, The Nation.

"The GPO is now trying to improve its capacity to produce medical products and compete with private drugmakers. Who will gain from this?" he said at a TPMA-sponsored seminar titled The Right to Access Medicine and Problems That Need to Be Resolved.

Mr Chernporn said the GPO should not produce generic drugs to compete with local pharmaceutical companies, because that would discourage development between the state drug manufacturing agency and private pharmaceutical companies. He said the GPO should produce drugs that private manufacturers did not have the capacity to make, such as orphan drugs, developed specifically to treat rare medical conditions.