Gov’t urged to import key medicines to lower prices
By BERNIE CAHILES-MAGKILAT
Published in Manila Bulletin on July 26, 2009, 3:21pm
The government is urged to undertake substantial importation of patented and off-patent branded essential medicines to provide short-term but immediate and effective solution to bring down prices of medicines.
This was proposed by the Ayos na Gamot sa Abot-Kayang Presyo (AGAP) Coalition saying that the passage of Republic Act 9502 or the Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008, a big number of essential medicines or medicines for life-threatening illnesses that are either patented or off-patent branded medicines still maintain astronomical prices. The high prices of these medicines are a big impediment to the therapeutic and health needs of millions of Filipinos.
“In order to bring down the prices of the patented and off-patent branded medicines for life-threatening illnesses, competition must be introduced and allowed to flourish. And for competition to happen, a substantial parallel importation of patented essential medicines and importation of off-patent branded essential medicines must be done to get the imported medicinal products in the market,” said Angelito Mendoza, convenor of AGAP Coalition.
Mendoza said that once a sizeable supply of affordably priced patented essential medicines and off-patent branded ones shall be made immediately accessible to the public, the ensuing fierce competition between the imported medicines and its local counterparts would further drive the prices down of both to the great advantage of public health.
“In this light, the government must take the lead to make importation of patented and off-patent essential medicines happen soonest,” Mendoza said.
AGAP noted the efforts to bring down prices by implementing RA 9502 via the DoH endorsed Maximum Retail Price of 22 medicines or the Malacañang-initiated voluntary compliance from pharma firms to reduce prices of the listed medicines by 50%.
