Drug firms given until next week to submit medicine price list

MANILA, Philippines – Pharmaceutical companies have until next week to submit a list of drugs and medicines whose prices they promised to cut by at least half, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said yesterday.

In a statement, Duque said President Arroyo gave the ultimatum upon the recommendation of Trade Secretary Peter Favila during a meeting last Wednesday with multinational pharmaceutical companies.

“The President gave such ultimatum to speed up bringing down the prices of medicines and have our people enjoy the benefits of cheaper medicines the earliest possible time,” he said. 

“It also serves to challenge these firms to add more medicines to the list of those they are mandated to bring down,” he added.

The price reduction is in line with Republic Act 9502 or the Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008.

Under the law, the Department of Health has to come up with a list of medicines for the maximum drug retail price (MDRP) list.

The DOH wanted the list to include medicines primarily for leading illnesses like diabetes, hypertension, asthma, tuberculosis and even cancer.

Last month, the DOH submitted to Mrs. Arroyo a draft Executive Order setting the maximum retail price for 22 essential drugs.

These drugs include the anti-hypertensive drug Norvasc (to P22.50 from P44.50); anti-diabetic Diamicron (to P7.35 from P14.75); antibiotic Zithromax (to P149.37 from P298.75); and antibiotic Augmentin suspension 60 ml (to P179.50 from P359).

The full and effective implementation of the MDRP is expected to be in two to three months.

Duque said this was primarily due to “administrative issues on reconciling inventory, compliance to labeling requirements as accorded by law (putting the red strip and others) and preventing possible stock-outs of the much needed products in the drugstores.”

“Voluntary compliance for some of these companies will make our people enjoy low cost quality medicines even before the two to three month period,” he maintained.

The health chief said the list was prepared in consultation with various drug companies and other stakeholders.

“At least four advisory council meetings were held where the MDRP was discussed,” he said.

“The multinational and local companies have been well represented in these meetings by Mr. Reiner Gloor, PHAP executive director and Mr. Ed Isaac, Philippine Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industries president. They have been informed of the list even before it was transmitted to the President,” he added. PHAP stands for Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines.

Duque said many multinational drug products are two to 10 times more expensive in the Philippines than in other countries.

“With these initiatives, Amlodipine, for example should now only be P22 from P44, Metronidazole suspension should only be at least P65 from P112. And there are more on the list,” he said. 

“We want to speed up bringing down these drug prices in a way that our countrymen will benefit the soonest,” he pointed out.

Go-signal

Malacañang has given Duque the go signal to attend tomorrow’s Senate hearing on the alleged conspiracy between the government and multinational pharmaceutical companies to circumvent the cheaper medicines law.

This was announced by Press Secretary Cerge Remonde who also chided Sen. Manuel Roxas II for including President Arroyo in the list of those invited to the hearing.

“Senator Roxas knows that it is against the law to invite the head of a co-equal branch of government to an investigation. He knows this so obviously he is doing this for political reasons,” Remonde said in Filipino in an interview over Radyo ng Bayan.

“If he does not know that then he really has no business being a senator, or seeking the presidency,” he said.

“But definitely Secretary Duque will attend the hearing so that the good senator would be enlightened on this issue,” he added.

Roxas claimed that in a closed-door meeting at Malacañang last Wednesday, giant pharmaceutical firms asked Mrs. Arroyo to hold off the signing of an executive order on the setting of a maximum retail price. In return, the drug firms reportedly promised to slash prices in time for Mrs. Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address on July 27.

Remonde said that Roxas was capitalizing on the issue for his bid for the presidency next year.

“It is obvious that what he is doing is a publicity stunt, political grandstanding and therefore that alone should already give very bad motives to his alleged exposé,” he said.

Duque and Favila have admitted that the meeting did take place at the old Singian Hospital at the Malacañang compound as requested by the pharmaceutical companies.

However, they denied that it was meant to accommodate the alleged lobbying of the firms.

The two Cabinet officials explained that the President granted the drug firms’ request for a meeting so that they could air their concerns about the law as legitimate businesses in the country.

Remonde defended the President for her decision to meet the executives, saying any “responsible president has an obligation to listen to business and every other sector.”

“Their influence is just like the influence of any vital industry. But whether you are influential or not, the President, a responsible president, has an obligation to listen,” he said.

According to Duque and Favila, they also met with the representatives of the pharmaceutical companies separately before the meeting with the President.

The firms, which belong to PHAP, had complained about the supposed lack of consultation in the crafting of the implementing rules and regulations for the law, specifically, the identification of the medicines that would be subjected to the MDRP.

Rating in mind

Administration congressmen have accused Roxas of using the medicines issue to prop up his low ratings in recent surveys of presidential wannabes.

“Definitely it is pure politics. Wild accusation! People are not that stupid to believe him. I was in the meeting when President Arroyo gave the multinational pharmaceutical companies 10 days to bring down their prices or she will be force to sign the EO,” Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, chairman of the House committee on public information, said.

Nueva Ecija Rep. Rodolfo Antonino, chairman of the House committee on public order and safety, made the same observation, noting that election fever prodded Roxas to make the accusations.

“The Cheaper Medicine Law will be implemented as soon as all the data are submitted to Department of Health and Department of Trade and Industry,” he said.

Iloilo Rep. Ferjenel Biron, a physician-lawmaker who is one of the main authors of the cheaper medicines bill in the House, said Roxas is actually solely to blame for the high cost of medicines, because it was he who wanted a deregulated industry.

Biron said it was Roxas who lobbied for the exclusion of a provision in the law that called for an automatic price regulation.

“Senator Roxas should not blame President Arroyo for the failure of the Cheaper Medicines Law. He should blame himself because he killed the law,” he said. Roxas rejected the “heart and soul” of the House bill, that provided “mandatory price regulation.”

The approved measure, some considered a watered-down version, is now called Universally Accessible, Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act, or Republic Act 9502.

“The thought of inviting President Arroyo to the oversight is pointless. Sen. Roxas should realize that it was him who blocked the mandatory price regulation provision of the Cheaper Medicines Law. He gave it up to the sole discretion of the President upon the recommendation of the Health Secretary,” said Biron.

Former Iloilo congressman and now Vice Gov. Rolex Suplico, the sole author of the measure during 11th and 12th Congresses, also said it was Roxas who opposed the creation of the Drug Price Regulatory Board.

“I was sole author of the cheaper medicines bill in the 11th Congress. I re-filed it in the 12th Congress. Rep. Biron joined me in the 13th Congress. Kami ay para sa (We are for the) creation ng Drug Price Regulatory Board. Mar was against it,” he said. He said Roxas preferred parallel importation so he abolished the board and gave the president the powers to regulate prices.

Backing for Roxas

Sen. Pia Cayetano joined Roxas in assailing the alleged clandestine meeting between the President and officials of giant drug forms.

“Is the enforcement of Philippine laws now subject to bargaining and negotiations with the powers-that-be?” Cayetano asked.

“It is Malacañang’s legal and moral duty to reveal to the people the details of that reported meeting between President Arroyo and executives of big pharmaceutical companies,” she said.

Conflict of interest

Cayetano also questioned presidential adviser Roberto Romulo’s facilitating the Palace meeting saying it’s conflict of interest.

Romulo, presidential adviser on international competitiveness, is executive director of the International Board of Advisers and chairman of the Zuellig Family Foundation.

“Mr. Romulo insists we will send the wrong signal to the international business community once the EO is signed by the President. But on the contrary, by not signing the EO, we will actually send the wrong message to foreign investors that in the Philippines, our laws may be enforced selectively depending on who your connections are in Malacañang,” Cayetano said.

“May we remind Mr. Romulo and Mrs. Arroyo that it’s the foreign investors and businessmen who rate the Philippines as one of the most corrupt in the region, precisely because of the perception that we can’t enforce our laws and instead use it for blackmail and corrupt practices,” she said.

“It’s time the government shows that our law may be harsh, but it’s the law that applies to all. I wonder if the foreign investors that Mr. Romulo refers to have governments that can be talked into negotiating whether the law should be enforced or not,” Cayetano said. – With Aurea Calica, Marvin Sy, Delon Porcalla, Dennis Carcamo