The following year, Thailand's Central Intellectual Property Court ruled the patent invalid in Thailand, paving the way for the country to begin large-scale drug production.

[Paul Cawthorne], head of Doctors Without Borders in Thailand, urged the Thai government on Monday to follow Brazil's example lest it upset its thriving generic drug industry.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Sunday at the opening of the 15th International AIDS Conference here that the government would spend $20 million to provide about 40,000 of those patients with drugs and that the rest of the money would come from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He also said Thailand would soon begin exporting the drugs to neighboring Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.