The Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO) (; ) is a Thai

state enterprise A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a business entity created or owned by a national or local government, either through an executive order or legislation. SOEs aim to generate profit for the government, prevent private sector monopolies, provide goo ...

which manufactures pharmaceutical products in Thailand. In 2011, the GPO netted a profit of 1.6 billion baht from the sale of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment. As of 2011, the GPO employed 2,812 persons. In 2016, the organization produced drugs at two government-owned factories. GPO makes and sells four categories of products: medicines;

antiretroviral The management of HIV/AIDS normally includes the use of multiple antiretroviral drugs as a strategy to control HIV infection. There are several classes of antiretroviral agents that act on different stages of the HIV life-cycle. The use of mu ...

s; chemicals/test kits/natural products; and preventive medicines. Besides Thailand, it markets its products in

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, and

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. The GPO gives Thailand significant leverage in its price negotiations with foreign drug suppliers. , GPO's chairman is Dr Sopon Mekthon, who took over from Dr Nopporn Cheanklin.

Missions

GPO's mission statement contains four objectives. One of them is to "To maintain price level of pharmaceutical products and medical supplies necessary for the Thai society to ensure people's accessibility." As an example, GPO will produce the antiretroviral drug efavirenz after receiving WHO approval. GPO's product costs 180 baht per bottle of thirty 600 mg tablets. The imported version retails for more than 1,000 baht per bottle. GPO will devote 2.5 percent of its manufacturing capacity to make 42 million efavirenz pills in 2018, allowing it to serve export markets as well as domestic. The Philippines alone will order about 300,000 bottles of efavirenz for 51 million baht.

Compulsory licensing

The GPO is permitted to produce efavirenz and two other patented medications by having sought

compulsory licensing A compulsory license provides that the owner of a patent or copyright licenses the use of their rights against payment either set by law or determined through some form of adjudication or arbitration. In essence, under a compulsory license, an i ...

(CL) under the provisions of the WTO agreement on intellectual property, the

Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an international agreement, international legal agreement between all the member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It establishes minimum standards f ...

(TRIPs). Under a compulsory license, an individual or company seeking to use another's intellectual property can do so—for good reasons—without seeking the rights holder's consent, and pays the rights holder a set fee for the license. This is an exception to the general rule under intellectual property laws that the intellectual property owner enjoys exclusive rights that it may license—or decline to license—to others. In the case of efavirenz, the patent owner, Merck, and the US Trade Representative, for years fiercely resisted allowing the GPO to produce the drug.

Products

Sidegra

* Sidegra (

Sildenafil Sildenafil, sold under the brand name Viagra among others, is a medication used to treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary arterial hypertension. It is also sometimes used off-label for the treatment of certain sym ...

) in 50 and 100 mg tablets.

Medical marijuana

GPO produces cannabinoid medicines at its factory in Pathum Thani Province, where it also grows cannabis plants. The organisation is also seeking approval to build a three billion baht, , herb and marijuana facility in Chonburi Province. The GPO led an effort to convince the military government to approve

marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...

research so that the GPO can market it for medical use. The move would make Thailand the first country in Asia to legalize medical cannabis. Dr. Nopporn Cheanklin, managing director of the GPO, said that, "The best strains of

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...

in the world 20 years ago were from Thailand, and now Canada has developed this strain..., we can't claim that ours is the best in the world anymore,...That's why we must develop our strain to...compete with theirs." The government's cabinet of ministers in May 2018 gave the green light to amend the country's drug laws to allow research on medicinal marijuana. The bill is currently being debated in the National Legislative Assembly. Current Thai laws are tough on both the sale and use of marijuana. Possession of cannabis in Thailand could land its owner in jail for up to 15 years as the plant is a category-5 narcotic drug along with psychoactive mushrooms and kratom, a psychoactive plant similar to

opiate An opiate is an alkaloid substance derived from opium (or poppy straw). It differs from the similar term ''opioid'' in that the latter is used to designate all substances, both natural and synthetic, that bind to opioid receptors in the brain ( ...

s that is native to Thailand. A researcher at

Chulalongkorn University Chulalongkorn University (CU; ; , ) is a public university, public Autonomous university, autonomous research university in Bangkok, Thailand. The university was originally founded during King Chulalongkorn's reign as a school for training ro ...

has pointed out that Thailand has 200,000 Alzheimer's patients and 150,000 Parkinson's patients who could benefit from medical marijuana.

References

External links

GPO Website
{{authority control State enterprises of Thailand Pharmaceutical companies of Thailand Manufacturing companies based in Bangkok