President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered a 50-percent reduction on the cost of five essential medicines after drug firms refused voluntary price cuts on the said products used against cancer, high-blood pressure, infection, and high cholesterol. Mrs. Arroyo on Monday signed Executive Order No. (EO) 821 imposing price cuts on the following medicines by August 15:
- Amlodipine (anti-hypertensive)
- Atorvastatin (anti-cholesterol)
- Azithromycin (anti-biotic, anti-bacterial)
- Cytarabine (anti-cancer)
- Doxorubicin (anti-cancer)
These drugs are among the 21 essential medicines in the draft EO earlier prepared by the Department of Health (DOH) for Mrs. Arroyo’s approval. DOH prepared the order in accordance with the compulsory maximum retail price mechanism set by Republic Act 9502 or the Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act.
However, Mrs. Arroyo set aside the EO after pharmaceutical firms offered to reduce their prices voluntarily during a meeting with the President and some of her officials on July 8. The President gave the companies 10 days or until July 18 to submit their counter-proposal to the draft EO. The pharmaceutical firms only proposed a uniform 50-percent cut on 16 of the 21 medicines, and offered to slash the prices of 22 additional drugs that were not covered by the DOH’s proposed EO. This has prompted Mrs. Arroyo to sign the EO for the five other medicines that were excluded from the DOH list. Prices of drug products mostly manufactured by multinational companies for the Philippines are among the highest in Asia. In 2007, results of a World Bank Study survey showed that the prices of drugs being sold in the Philippines were 34 to 184 times higher than international reference prices. The slashing of the prices of medicines can be considered a breakthrough, according to Dr. Robert Louie P. So, program manager of the DOH’s National Drug Policy unit. He said that before the enactment of R.A. 9502, the government found it hard to get full cooperation from drug firms in lowering the prices of their products. “We tried to approach them before, but we failed. We didn’t get much information on the production cost of their medicines.
Ayaw nilang magbigay (They didn’t want to give it to us). We needed the data to determine up to how much the prices of medicines could be reduced," So told GMANews.TV in a recent interview. But with the enactment of the cheaper medicines law, So said it became easier for the government to get information from the companies and push through with lowering the prices of essential medicines.
- with reports from SOPHIA M. DEDACE, GMANews.TV 
GMA Brandtalk
Tracking
Archives
