Sixty-nine year old Juan Daco has been taking in maintenance medication for his hypertension for almost nine years now. One of the drugs prescribed by his doctor was Norvasc, which he refused to take as it was too expensive at almost P71 per tablet. He is also taking in other anti-hypertensive drugs totaling his daily medicine expenses to at least P150 or P4,500 a month which is even short considering his P3,000 pension from the Social Security System.
Mang Juan, and a lot of people taking in maintenance and other medications were hoping that the implementation of Republic Act 9502 or the Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008 would create a dent in their monthly medicine expenses. However, some admitted they have not felt the positive effects of the law yet, since it has not brought down their medicine expenses.
“Wala ring nabago kasi ang alternative medicine na tine-take ko ngayon eh P32.50 to P39 (100mg) ang amount (nothing has changed because the alternative medicine I am taking only costs $32.50 to P39),” he said.
Under Executive Order 821 which requires a 50% reduction in the price of up to 43 medicines, the price of Pfizer’s anti-hypertensive drug Norvasc is reduced from P44.50 to P22.50. Effective August 15 this year, Mercury Drugstores in the city had lowered the price of Norvasc from P71 to P38.50 (10mg) and from P40 to P22.85 (5 mg).
The maximum drug retail price (MRDP) includes other drugs for leading illnesses such as hypertension, tuberculosis, asthma and diabetes among others. With the implementation of MRDP, the price of the antibiotic drug Zithromax should have already been reduced from P298.75 to P149.37, diabetic drug Diamicron from P14.75 to P7.35 and the antibiotic Augmentin from P359 to P179 for the suspension 60ml.
A few days before its implementation, the Private Hospitals’ Association of the Philippines threatened to hold a hospital holiday to protest the implementation of the RA 9502 and EO 821. The price reduction was expected to be fully implemented in all Metro Manila and provincial pharmaceutical outlets and drugstores effective August 15. Small drug outlets in far-flung barangays, however, have until September 15 to comply.
Hospitals and drugstores not complying with EO 821 will be made to pay a fine of from P50,000 to P5 million, and will be slapped with administrative and criminal charges. This is a lot graver than the P1,000 penalty and cancellation of license provision under the older Consumer Price Act.
“We will be monitoring and investigating pharmacies that are violating the provisions of the law, especially in reducing the prices of medicines included in the MRDP,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque said during a press conference here Thursday. He said a Task Force including the Bureau of Food and Drug and the Department of Trade and Industry are already monitoring the prices of drugs nationwide.
Duque also sought help from the consumers and asked them to police the drugstores themselves and report those not complying with the law, so that the government can file the necessary cases.
“Pakiusap naman po sa mga botika, huwag kayong pasaway at i-implement nyo kung ano ang nasa batas (we are asking your full support in implementing the law),” he warned the drugstores.
The PHAP has asked the government to postpone the implementation of the EO considering that their existing inventories were purchased prior to the price cut and could therefore send them into bankruptcy if they sell them at reduced prices of up to 50%.
Health Undersecretary Alexander Padilla, however, said the pharmaceutical companies have already committed to adjust the prices of medicines that had been previously delivered to these outlets so there is no basis for PHAP’s concern.
“The price of medicine has gone down after the law on Cheaper Medicine had been implemented,” Duque said. Cheap medicine advocates are, however, unsure about the benefit of the law’s implementation to consumers considering that Transnational Corporations or TNCs still have control of the pricing, distribution and marketing of medicines in the country.
Rivera said the Arroyo government does not recognize that the foreign control over the country’s drug industry is the main reason for the prohibitive cost of medicines.
The CHD asserted that the Cheaper Medicine Act is silent about the control of transnational corporations (TNCs) in the marketing, distribution and pricing of medicines.
Council for Health and Development data shows that the TNC’s still control up to 72% of the Philippine drug industry. CHD data shows that 70% of the almost P9.11 billion medicines sold in the country in 2006 was cornered by TNCs.
CHD said only 200 of the almost essential 600 drugs in the country are made by local companies. The rest are imported. Their solution? The development of the country’s very own drug industry, just like what Pakistan and India did for the last ten years.
Until then, Mang Juan and the rest of the Filipino consumers will just have to wait and wait and wait. [Lovely A. Carillo]
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