Quote:Thailand to hire U.S. firm to burnish image

BANGKOK, April 30 (Reuters) - Thailand's interim government, increasingly unpopular at home after high hopes following a coup and under attack abroad for overriding drug patents, plans to hire an American public relations firm.

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, a former army chief, said on Monday he had agreed to a Foreign Ministry plan to spend $600,000 on a three-month public relations campaign to improve the post-coup government's sagging image.

"The money isn't much, but we have to do what we have to do. It is better than not doing anything at all," he told reporters.

However, Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat said Thailand would spend only $165,000 on a three-month "Thailand Branding" campaign.

"It is both action and reaction to create better understanding of the country as a whole," Tharit said. He declined to name the PR firm.

The plan was disclosed after an American lobby group which supports the U.S. pharmaceutical industry attacked Thailand in an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal last week.

USA for Innovation accused the army-appointed government of "imposing draconian measures on foreign-owned companies" and "stealing American assets for military benefit" by overriding the patents on American drugs.

Shortly after elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted last September, Thailand declared compulsory licences to make or buy generic equivalents of an HIV/AIDS drug owned by Merck & Co..

Then it overrode patents on another HIV/AIDS drug owned by Abbott Laboratories and a heart disease drug owned by Sanofi-Aventis, prompting an outcry from the companies and praise from HIV/AIDS patient rights groups.

USA for Innovation appears to have indirect ties with Big Pharma, according to their web sites.

The group's executive director is Ken Adelman of Edelman Public Relations Worldwide, its Web site (http://www.usaforinnovation.org) said.

Edelman counted Abbott Laboratories as one of its largest clients, according to Edelman's corporate brochure found on its Web site (edelman.com) and was also hired by Thaksin after he was ousted.