‘Pharma war’

Ombudsman Samuel Martires forwarded one after the other to Sandiganbayan last week the twin cases of graft and corruption charges involving former top government officials of the previous administration. The Ombudsman indicted them in the alleged anomalous deals with Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. for the supply of various anti-COVID medical items for the government’s pandemic response.

The twin cases were filed nearly four years after former president Rodrigo Duterte authorized the multi-billion pesos of negotiated contract during this public health emergency. Pharmally sealed the deals at the height of the pandemic outbreak in the Philippines that started in March 2020. Charged were former Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Dr. Francisco Duque III; Christopher Lao as executive director of the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM); and several other high-ranking officials of various government agencies.

The Ombudsman found Pharmally not only lacked any business operations, but was even under financial losses prior to the awarding of the contracts. Registered as a domestic corporation, the Ombudsman discovered: “Pharmally’s funds came from its irregular transactions with PS-DBM.”

Also ordered charged are top executives of Pharmally – its president Twinkle Dargani, treasurer and secretary Mohit Dargani, directors Linconn Ong and Justine Garado and board member Huang Tzu Yen and financial manager Lin Weixiong. All of the accused were charged with various alleged irregularities that went through the transfer of P41.46-billion fund of the DOH to PS-DBM, P11.5 billion of which financed the Pharmally deal.

The formal charges stemmed from the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee public hearings on Pharmally’s anti-COVID business deals with the PS-DBM. Former Senator Richard Gordon, who then chaired the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, believes further investigation of the Pharmally case “will even prove plunder” to include other former administration officials who tried to cover it up. 

“There was definitely a conspiracy which leads to the highest levels of government,” Gordon insisted. The marathon hearings of the Senate Blue Ribbon on the Pharmally case got Gordon at the receiving end of campaign tirades of ex-president Duterte and cost the re-election bid of the Senator in the May 2022 polls. 

The track record of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee – whoever chairs it – has been known for a number of high profile cases that ended in the prosecution. The accused either gets cleared or convicted years later. Now headed by newly designated chairperson, Sen. Pia Cayetano, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, is taking over the “inquiry in aid of legislation” of the alleged multi-level marketing and purported “unethical” practices of another pharma company, Belle Kenz (BK) Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Belle Kenz is a local pharma, wholly owned by Filipino doctors led by Dr. Luis Raymond Go, a cardiologist at the government-owned Philippine Heart Center (PHC) in Quezon City. Dr. Go is the president and chief executive officer of BK which he and 50 or like-minded fellow doctors put up in 2006. From then on, BK gained success in the pharma industry dominated by well-established foreign and local competitors. 

Dr. Antonio Leachon, a self-proclaimed health reform advocate, initiated the allegations against the BK in his social media posts. Leachon was formerly member of the vaccine experts panel of the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases-Inter-Agency Task Force (MEID-IATF) co-chaired by ex-DOH Secretary Duque and National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. For making un-authorized announcements before the IATF, Leachon was removed from the IATF panel in June 2020.       

Incidentally, Leachon resigned from the DOH as “special adviser on non-communicable disease” in September last year following questions raised by Iloilo Rep. Janet Garin who once headed DOH. 

From the series of social media posts, Sen. JV Ejercito filed a Senate Resolution seeking to look into alleged “unethical” practices such as to entice doctors to prescribe BK-supplied medicines with junkets abroad, “luxurious” gifts, etc. Older brother Sen. Jinggoy Estrada chimed in with his privilege speech last April 29.

Initially, the Senate committee on Health chaired by Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go – who swore BK’s Dr. Go is not a relative – conducted a “motu propio” public hearing on the BK inquiry last April 30. However, Sen. Estrada raised a point of order. Under the Senate Rules, any Committee must wait for three days after the plenary refers a Resolution before it can conduct public hearing. 

This was seconded by Sen. Pia whose committee has jurisdiction over “ethical conduct” of officials in government agencies being mentioned in the BK inquiry. Aside from the DOH, other agencies being mentioned include the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) as well as the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC). After a brief debate and closed-door caucus, the Senators agreed to officially refer to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee the BK inquiry. 

So Sen. Pia set the BK inquiry this Wednesday.

At my Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last week, Dr. Go reiterated his sworn testimony at the Senate’s first public hearing. “We are in line with government to lower the cost of care. If you’re going to research the cost of our medicine compared to other leading brands, we are really far lesser – 30% lesser,” stressed anew. “We remain committed to our mission to bring the cost of healthcare down through quality medicine at affordable prices,” he added. 

Describing present woes as “challenges, Dr. Go vowed to cooperate with the Senate hearing: “As a physician, we support whatever laws will come out following this inquiry. If it’s going to help the medical profession, the entire industry, then we support it.”

Unlike Pharmally though, BK does not and did not do any business deals with the government. “Belle-Kenz has no government transaction, not one and never provided or supplied medicine to the government or hospitals. Very clear, there is none,” Alex Avisado, legal counsel of BK told us at the same news forum. As further proof of the integrity of his pharma client, Avisado cited BK is not facing any legal suit on any of illegal activities.

Life-saving medicines that indigent patients can afford must not be sacrificed in the name of competition in the on-going  “pharma war” waged in social media.