Make Mercury Sell More Generic Drugs

We are glad that the DOH and DTI have both taken a more active role in fighting the high prices of prescription drugs in this country. It is a campaign this column initiated over a year or so ago after we were shocked by a study that showed how much more we are paying for prescription drugs here compared with some cities in the region. We sounded like a really lonely voice then, but we pursued the campaign because it was simply a scandal that we had to do something about.

One of the solutions that international experts in other countries use to fight drug cartels is parallel importing. Of course India went a step more by encouraging the growth of a domestic drug industry. Parallel importing of drugs from countries where the comparative prices are 15 or more times less than the prices here should put pressure on the local drug companies to be more reasonable. Nothing like market forces to keep any industry honest with their prices.

The problem with parallel importing is that it may kill the struggling local drug industry. Drugs imported from India will not displace the high priced branded drugs of the western multinational drug companies. Our market is too oriented to favor them and our health care professionals are too vulnerable to their marketing practices. Also, given limited government resources, we may not be able to import enough to make a difference.

There is another way I had proposed in the past and one that has received passing attention from the DOH and DTI. This is to use the distribution network of Mercury Drug to work for the public interest, for a change. This drugstore chain is a virtual monopoly on a nationwide basis. And given the near absence of generic drugs in its drugstores, one can almost assume that Mercury Drug is in an unholy alliance with the big multinational drug companies.

Mercury Drug is in a similar situation as Microsoft. Both can claim they have competitors but none of their competitors are big enough to really compete with them. The size and extensive network of Mercury, together with its overwhelming share of the retail drug market should be able to justify an anti-trust case, if we only had an effective anti-trust law. But since we don't, the government must be more creative to pressure the drugstore chain to support the Generic Drug Law more enthusiastically and bring down the prices of prescription drugs.

The lobbyists for the foreign multinationals may say that the branded drugs are more reliable in terms of quality. But there are a number of local drug manufacturers who produce quality drugs at a fraction of the cost charged by the multinationals.

My late father, a doctor of medicine, who was also a professor of medicine in four medical colleges during his lifetime, used to send a messenger to the office of one such drug company in the Banawe area of Quezon Avenue to buy his anti-hypertensive and anti diabetic medicines. Even that popular anti-mucolytic we know as Bisolvon is several times cheaper in its generic version by this drug company.

The crazy thing is, the prescription drugs produced by this drug company are not available at any Mercury Drug branch. It is so inconvenient to go to the only place where one can buy these cheap but effective medicines. There is no doubt that Mercury Drug branches are the most convenient sources of medicines. That's why there is always a crowd of people buying their medicines there. Why can't Mercury Drug, even for sheer public service, carry the generic products of this local drug company?

I suspect there is a tacit agreement between Mercury and the big multinationals to shut the local drug firms out of the market. It must have something to do with generous marketing discounts given to Mercury, which in turn, is charged to the marketing costs of the foreign multinationals, which subsequently makes their prices higher.

In fact, to get to the bottom of the problem, a congressional inquiry on the state of the country's retail drug industry ought to be called. I am sure the inquiry will confirm what I have written in this column about the existence of a virtual monopoly here, one that is terribly unhealthy. With the help of the BIR and the COA, congressional probers can go through the books of Mercury to verify the existence of trade incentives that encourage the retail chain to lock out the local drug firms.

Remedial legislation is definitely called for like requiring Mercury and other drugstore chains to give drug companies whose products are cleared by BFAD equal access to their retail network. But since that will take time, both the DOH and the DTI can effect some immediate administrative relief. The owners of Mercury Drug know they cannot fight city hall if city hall is intent on protecting the people from high drug prices.

Parallel importing will definitely help curb the drug cartel. But it may be messy and expensive for government to undertake, and may backfire on local drug companies. It may also not be as effective unless done on a fairly large scale. A quick, effective and more painless way is to make Mercury Drug carry a wider range of generic drugs from local drug companies. For so long as the product can pass the scrutiny of the BFAD, Mercury Drug should have no excuse not to carry the product.

Now we know one good reason why the Generic Drug Law is not working as envisioned. Mercury Drug and its near monopoly of the retail drug market is the reason why. It is as simple as that.

The hostage situation in Sulu has attracted a lot of worldwide attention. All through the Labor Day weekend, the international news channels on cable have been airing reports on the hostage crisis. We can really kiss our tourism industry goodbye with publicity like that.

It didn't help that Maria Ressa of CNN was reporting from Manila and there was a map of the Philippines on the TV screen with Manila pointed out in bold letters. For most of the world not familiar with our geography, they probably think the hostages are being held in Manila or very near it. One of the hostages also said she would never go back to the Philippines. How's that for an endorsement!

More than our tourism problem, however, is the festering problem with piracy in the South China Sea. Whole ships have been known to disappear. And as for what happened in that high end Malaysian tourist resort, that was just begging to happen given the situation.

I remember when I was still at PNOC that the officers of the crude oil tankers we sent to the Middle East often complained about pirates in that area, notably in the Straits of Malacca. But as economic conditions in the Philippines deteriorated, the pirates stopped boarding PNOC tankers. All they could get were worthless pesos from the captain's safe.

For many years now, there had been a lot of talk about joint patrols in the area. But somehow, that never quite got going. If the navies of Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and even China, Singapore and Vietnam worked together to rid the South China Sea of pirates, the economic benefits to the region should be substantial. That's also more productive than gearing up to fight each other over some coral rocks in the Spratleys.

The kidnappers who went all the way to Malaysia to get their hostages are pure bandits and media should stop trying to make them look like holy warriors. They are after ransom pure and simple. They certainly aren't doing it for Islam. The governments of the Philippines and Malaysia should be united in stamping out the bandits. Drastic action against them will be applauded internationally.

On the other hand, we have terribly neglected that part of the country.

There is absolutely little by way of decent livelihood available to the people in Sulu. I remember visiting a floating barrio of Filipinos off the coast of Kota Kinabalu in a visit I made there some years ago. Those Filipinos from Sulu islands went to Sabah in search of livelihood and ended up in a floating squatters area. The situation is just pathetic.

It is also difficult to blame some of them for doing the only thing they can do to earn a living and that's piracy. The Western ambassadors now in Zamboanga may want to do something more than worry over the fate of their compatriots taken hostage by the pirates. It may help prevent future pirate raids if they offered to implement a development program for that island group that will allow them to have a more peaceful and respectable way of earning a living.

STAR reader Amanda Diaz e-mailed this one for today.

Every Sunday evening a little old lady stops by Smitty's for a glass of sherry; she always has her pet monkeys, Mildred and Mortimer, with her. One day the old lady comes in and tells Smitty that after a long and happy life, Mortimer died, and a few days later Mildred died of a broken heart. "I'm going to taking Mildred and Mortimer to the taxidermist," she tells Smitty.

"Do you want them mounted?" Smitty asks.

"Oh, no," she says, "just holding hands".

(Boo Chanco's e-mail address is [email protected])