TIL that in 2007, Thailand legally issued a compulsory license to make cheap generic versions of Abbott's HIV drug Kaletra. Abbott retaliated by withdrawing 7 medicines from Thailand. Thailand held firm, and HIV treatment coverage expanded to hundreds of thousands more patients.
___________________________

Thailand used a mechanism under the WTO's TRIPS Agreement that allows governments to authorize generic production of patented drugs in exchange for a royalty (Thailand offered 0.5%, a rate informed by WHO/UNDP guidelines for compulsory licensing royalties). At the time, only about 1 in 5 of the 500,000 Thais living with HIV could afford treatment at Abbott's prices. Generic versions cost one-seventh to one-tenth of the patented price.

Abbott's response was to pull seven drugs from registration in Thailand entirely, including Aluvia (a heat-stable version of Kaletra specifically designed for tropical countries without reliable refrigeration). The seven drugs also included treatments for hypertension, kidney disease, arthritis, and blood clots. Activists filed complaints under Thai competition law arguing this was an abuse of market dominance. Abbott eventually agreed to register Aluvia only if Thailand dropped the compulsory license, which Thailand refused. The licenses held. Thai HIV treatment coverage expanded dramatically in the following years.

https://www.nature.com/news/2007/070326/full/news070326-2.html

Extra Sources:

• ⁠Stanford Graduate School of Business case study, "Compulsory Licensing, Thailand, and Abbott Laboratories": https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/case-studies/compulsory-licensing-thailand-abbott-laboratories
• ⁠Globalization and Health (peer-reviewed): "Government use licenses in Thailand: The power of evidence, civil movement and political leadership": https://globalizationandhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1744-8603-7-32
• ⁠aidsmap, "Abbott to withhold new drugs from Thailand in retaliation for Kaletra compulsory license" (March 2007): https://www.aidsmap.com/news/mar-2007/abbott-withhold-new-drugs-thailand-retaliation-kaletra-compulsory-license
• ⁠Compulsory Licences: Law and Practice in Thailand (academic, PMC): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7122632/
• ⁠Make Medicines Affordable (International Treatment Preparedness Coalition), "The campaign for use of compulsory licensing in Thailand": https://makemedicinesaffordable.org/the-campaign-for-use-of-compulsory-licensing-in-thailand/

reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/s/EQSyVfUkTH