News Forum - Thailand deemed too wealthy to produce generic Molnupiravir

[Thaiger]

Thailand has been deemed to be too rich to produce a generic version of the anti-viral drug Molnupiravir that reduces the negative effects of Covid-19 infections. Merck, the producer of the drug, had made an agreement to license the virus-fighting drug to production companies in poor countries to help in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. But the World Bank has classified Thailand as an upper-middle-income economy, wealthier than other neighbouring members of ASEAN like Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Vietnam. As such, they do not qualify for the program to save money and produce Molnupiravir cheaply to treat […]

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[Dr.Sivada]

Yeh, look at those slums in Bangkok, very wealthy. Ethiopia would be the obviously better choice! 

[Bob20]

Ethiopia has one third of the Thai death-rate, maybe they can donate some of the cheap stuff to Thailand

[Griff1315]

Back to $700 + a course then. That's fine they can order enough to treat the Thailand elite.

[Stonker]

Exactly the same thing applied to the Covax programme, excluding Thailand from free vaccines.

You'd think the UN would be capable of setting a graduated or sliding scale for this type of thing rather than a black or white / rich or poor binary classification.

[Dedinbed]

23 minutes ago, Thaiger said:

Merck, the producer of the drug,

pulled out after seeing the number of Hiso Benz's that get skittled .. 

[Benroon]

Indonesia is wealthier than Thailand by a wide margin so where are they getting their figures from ?

Unless whoever wrote it just slipped them in as they're a neighbour ?

[palooka]

9 minutes ago, Benroon said:

Indonesia is wealthier than Thailand by a wide margin so where are they getting their figures from ?

Unless whoever wrote it just slipped them in as they're a neighbour ?

Figures based on how many submarines you can buy.

[spicy_girl]

9 minutes ago, Benroon said:

Indonesia is wealthier than Thailand by a wide margin so where are they getting their figures from ?

Unless whoever wrote it just slipped them in as they're a neighbour ?

Hi Benroon, I am Indonesian and my feeling is Thailand is richer. How to measure the ranking?

[Bob20]

As long as it's going to be generically produced in an ASEAN or friendly country, it's going to end up here at a lower price. Probably not immediately. And a shame that the report provides a cover for the price already, as it nicely excuses that some might add a margin. But as soon as production is up and running some of it will find it's way here.

[Rebel]

They only play third world country if they can benefit from it. And bragging about that they can afford flying to the moon. 

[Griff1315]

13 minutes ago, Benroon said:

Indonesia is wealthier than Thailand by a wide margin so where are they getting their figures from ?

Unless whoever wrote it just slipped them in as they're a neighbour ?

Maybe based it on the bank account balance of the PM and his cronies.

[Guevara]

18 minutes ago, Benroon said:

Indonesia is wealthier than Thailand by a wide margin so where are they getting their figures from ?

Unless whoever wrote it just slipped them in as they're a neighbour ?

The BBC did an interview with President Joko Widodo yesterday and he stated that Indonesia expect a 4.5 to 4.7% growth in GDP over the next 12 months. Indonesia is allegedly the richest of S E Asian Countries.

[Griff1315]

3 minutes ago, yetanother said:

"But the World Bank has classified Thailand as an upper-middle-income economy"

80% of what i see in thailand screams the opposite

The world bank never look outside of Bangkok when assessing Thailand. Perhaps a trip around some rural areas might change their opinion.

[Malc-Thai]

15 minutes ago, Griff1315 said:

Maybe based it on the bank account balance of the PM and his cronies.

I'm sure TAT gave the figures out to the world bank 

[Wackamole]

48 minutes ago, Benroon said:

Indonesia is wealthier than Thailand by a wide margin so where are they getting their figures from ?

Unless whoever wrote it just slipped them in as they're a neighbour ?

I very much doubt that Indonesia is richer than Thailand. You meant another country or ?

[Griff1315]

[EdwardV]

Clearly they took into account Thailand’s rather large foreign reserves in their decision process. 

[vvdb.fr]

for things to be comparable it is necessary to bring back to the inhabitants, those who produce this wealth. even if it is very unlikely for Saudi Arabia

[Benroon]

5 hours ago, spicy_girl said:

Hi Benroon, I am Indonesian and my feeling is Thailand is richer. How to measure the ranking?

Hi

via GDP (what your economy is worth)  

Thailand GDP is $536 BILLION

Indonesia GDP is $1.16 TRILLION

You are considerably richer - infact Indonesia is the 16th richest country in the world (Thailand 26th)

 

[Benroon]

4 hours ago, Tjampman said:

I was curious by this discussion so I just Googled it.

Thailand

GDP 544.3 billion USD

Population 69.6 million

GDP/Pers 7820 $

Indonesia

GDP 1,119,000 billon USD

population 270.6 million

GDP/Pers 4135 $

So yeah,  thailand is twice as wealthy as Indonesia.

Wether people think GDP/Pers is a good measure or not I won't get into. If people like Bhutans lead on gross domestic happiness, I will leave that to y'all, I was just crunching numbers

Eh ? You mean Indonesia is twice as wealthy as Thailand right ? 

Edit - ah I see what you did - but the wealth of a nation is calculated as GDP - else you could break the per person figure down ad finitum working/not working/age demographic etc etc 

 

 

[Freeduhdumb]

Thailand clearly hasn't been complying well enough with the global cabal's Great Reset... no approval for you Thailand.

[Soidog]

I actually think Westerners should keep out of this discussion. It’s bordering on sad. More like a discussion on who is the most poor rather than who is most wealthy. When you are genuinely wealthy you just don’t need to advertise it or debate it

[Soidog]

37 minutes ago, Tjampman said:

And when you are poor you have better things to do then discuss GDP on a tourist/retirement internet forum,  so if it wasn't for rich westerners with nothing better to do there truly would be no discussion

Agreed. Any westerner is basically talking about something they know little about. Thailand and it’s leaders are on another planet compared to most of us. Of the Thais can put up with it, then what is the point in westerners even commenting. As they say in Thailand “Up to you” !! 

[HiuMak]

According to worldbank, Thailand is ranked 25th and Indonesia is ranked 16 in GDP by country.

GDP per capita would be a better judgement.