<p>Civil society groups oppose the junta’s plan to use the regime’s absolute power to speed up the process of registering pharmaceutical patents, warning the plan could cost billions of baht in increased drug costs.</p>
<p>On 1 March 2017, FTA Watch, a civil society group monitoring trade policies, and AIDs Access Foundation (AAF) submitted a letter to Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta leader and Prime Minister, urging him not to use Section 44 of the Interim Constitution to bypass normal regulations in registering pharmaceutical patents.</p>
<p>A network of people with HIV is urging the Thai authorities not to hand a multinational pharmaceutical company the right to monopolise a drug to combat Hepatitis B as patients may have to pay millions of baht for treatment. </p>