Bangkok Post, Thailand, To The Point Column.

Byline: Baker & McKenzie

Aug. 4--In recent articles, we have explored Thailand's existing laws and certain disadvantages that may be taken into account in the newly proposed product liability law as well as a few key concepts of the product liability laws of other countries. If and when the draft Product Liability Act (PLA) comes into force there will be a new "strict" liability regime imposed on manufacturers and sellers of "defective" and "unsafe" products.

Under the PLA, a product will be deemed to be unsafe or defective if its safety in use is not such as persons generally are entitled to expect. The PLA adopts what is known as the consumer's "expectations test". We threw in a question about whether the PLA should be applicable to all types of products or should be reviewed more closely for exceptions for certain products from certain industries.

Today and next Monday we will explore some of the possible implications of the PLA for manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and, in particular, prescription pharmaceuticals for human use. We will examine some of the unique features of pharmaceuticals and why they are different from other products. We believe it will be difficult to apply some provisions of the PLA to pharmaceuticals.

Pharmaceuticals are different from other products. Some of these differences include the following:

1. They have high utility. Our health and our lives can depend upon them.

2. However, we often do not choose them. A doctor, pharmacist or other health-care provider makes the product choice on our behalf.