Local pharmaceutical industry backs stronger BFAD

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industry (PCPI) on Thursday threw its support behind a move to strengthen the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD). It also urged the agency to improve its procedures and implement a supportive regulatory policy most especially for Filipino drug companies, for competition to thrive and bring down the prices of medicines. "We are very hopeful that the passage of the Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act (of 2008), which contains a very important provision of allowing BFAD to keep its revenues will pave the way for augmentation of the agency's depleted manpower, upgrade its facilities, equipment outlay, human resource development and expansion, and other requirements to effectively implement this law," said Edward Isaac, PCPI vice president said in a statement. Isaac said PCPI supported the passage of RA 9502, or the Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008, as it espouses level playing field and free competition. The group said competition not only lowers the prices but extends access of affordable medicine to the majority of the people who finds it painful to buy medicines. Isaac said BFAD can help achieve a faster and more efficient way of getting the products of Filipinos both the manufacturers and importers into the market. "The BFAD may adopt a new mindset of not just a regulatory office but likewise a promoter and catalyst for social and national change. I believe these mindsets are not diametrically opposed and in fact complementary to the vision of accessible medicines," he said. Isaac made his appeal during the two-day Generics Summit organized by the Department of Health, Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) and the PCPI. Hewas one of the reactors in the presentation of the IMS data wherein the market share of branded-generics and generics vs. the innovator drugs has reached almost parity in terms of unit sales reaching to as high as 47% in some therapeutic categories. "More patients and even doctors are recognizing the quality and efficacy of the generic drugs. One glaring example is Neobloc. A brand of metoprolol, this beta blocker not only leads all beta blockers in unit sales but in terms of peso value as well. Truly an inspiring accomplishment from a Filipino company," said Isaac. He said the unit sales of Neobloc reached 337,008,050 in 2004 and doubled in 2008 to 693,693,427. On the other hand, the innovator brand, Betaloc has unit sales of 156,009,800 in 2004 and has since gone down to 118,798,221 in 2008. The increase in the market share of generic medicines also led to lowering of prices due to competition, he said. Betaloc is priced at P13.67 each while Neobloc costs only P3.70 per tablet. The entry of other generic medicines of this anti-hypertension drug led to downward trend in indicatives prices, from P5.55 per tablet in 2004 to only P3.63 per tablet in 2008. Isaac also cited the cases of anti-hypertension drug Norvasc and cholesterol drug Zocor that are considered block buster in their categories but were forced to lower their prices due to competition. "Norvasc, even before its patent expired offered deep discounts through cards, expecting that competitive prices will go more than 50% lower. Today you can buy Amlodipine besylate, the generic of Norvasc for as low as P9 per tablet from P40 as the cost of Norvasc during its monopoly. Zocor has been dethroned as leader of the Simvastatin market ever since Vidastat came out aggressively with a low price version," Isaac said. - GMANews.TV