Thailand issued compulsory licenses on three overpriced drugs, including two drugs for AIDS and one for heart disease. Thailand did this to obtain access to less expensive generic products. Thailand did this in compliance with WTO rules, and the patent owners are free to negotiate with the Thailand government on the royalties for those compulsory licenses.

Knowledge Ecology International also works closely with Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which has posted this recent speech by its Dr. Buddhima Lokuge, explaining the Thailand health crisis.

Both the WHO (in August 2005) and the World Bank (in August 2006) predicted dramatically rising drug costs in Thailand because of the second-line crisis. The World Bank identified the use of compulsory licenses to produce less-expensive generic medicines as a strategy to address the rising costs in order to continue providing universal coverage for HIV/AIDS treatment to the estimated 200,000 people who need ARVs. It is important to point out again that compulsory licenses are legally recognized means to overcome the barriers created by monopolistic pricing practices.

By the way, I couldn't find the not-so-helpful About Us page at USA For Innovation, until I used various outside-the-site searches, but it does confirm that its director, Ken Adelman (with an A), the former Bush official, is a senior flack with Edelman Worldwide (the link is to SourceWatch, not Edelman), the PR powerhouse with massive PhRMA contracts.