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By Katrina Mennen A. Valdez, Reporter
Groups supporting transnationals and “free
trade” as espoused by rich countries and their globally dominant
corporations are vigorously against the Philippine government’s
stand on generics. The same groups have supported pharmaceutical
giants in their legal and publicity campaigns against India and
Pakistan for championing the generic-medicine industry.
The Philippines can only bring down the prices
of medicines by expanding its market base and not by having generic
counterparts of every branded medicine that pharmaceutical giants
make, the International Policy Network’s policy director, Philip
Stevens, told The Manila Times.
He said that in order to bring down the prices
of medicines and the cost of health-care services the government
should encourage competition among pharmaceutical firms and
health-care providers.
This would only happen, said Steven, when the
government pushes for health insurance card benefits, puts up
medical infrastructure and offers discounts.
“Small market leads to expensive medicines,
because pharmaceutical companies are serving a very small market and
they have to make some adjustments to earn profits,” he said.
Efforts initiated by the legislative and
executive branches of the government and nongovernmental
organizations to bring down the cost of medicine may not be enough
to reach the common people, he added.
Even if patents are regulated so that generic
medicine manufacturers could produce a cheaper version, Steven said,
it would still not fully bring down the cost of medicines and
health-care services because only a few Filipinos have access to
these necessities because of mass poverty.
In the Philippines, only 15 percent to 20
percent have access to medicine, which is a very small market base.
Having but a small demand is the major driver of the high price of
medicines in this country, Steven said.
The main causes of low access to medicine,
Stevens said, are weak health-care systems, corruption, inadequate
health insurance coverage, taxes and tariffs, nontariff barriers to
drug imports, price controls, monopoly government provisions, and
counterfeit medicines.
But United Laboratories (Uni-lab), the largest
and most successful domestic medicine manufacturers, believes that
the passage of the Cheaper Medicines bill now in the bicameral
conference committee, would significantly drive the price of
medicines down.
Unilab’s vice-president for operations Joey
Ochave explained that the bill will result in more competition
because the market will expand to include the poor.
“With the Cheaper Medicines Law, the market
for medicine will beef up, which would spur competition among
pharmaceutical companies,” Ochave said.
Further, Ochave said that Unilab is not
threatened by this possible development, since their products are
already affordable. In fact, Unilab is a big generic medicine maker.
“[We] actually see value in the Cheaper
Medicines bill. It is about time for pharmaceutical companies to
finally serve the low-income Filipinos,“ he said.
Eight years ago, Unilab introduced the
Afford-a-Med, a price-reduction program that lowered the prices of
several of its frequently prescribed drugs by 10 percent to 40
percent. The program covered 65 products considered as essential
drugs commonly prescribed by doctors.
At present, the company goes on in finding ways
to further lowering the prices of its medicine, through RiteMed,
which promises to deliver “right medicine, priced right.”
RiteMed manufactures and markets off-patent
pharmaceuticals that are priced 20 percent to 80 percent lower than
equivalent branded drugs.
Ochave said that Unilab’s top generic sellers
include, Amoxicillin, Mefenamic Acid, Metformin, Cephalexin, and
Ascorbic Acid, under this order.
According to the A.C. Nielsen 2007 survey
covering urban households nationwide, six out 10 Filipino families
consume Unilab product in their homes.
Among the products found in households are
Biogesic, highest at 52 percent of total households, Neozep with 22
percent, Ceelin, with 21 percent, Alaxan and RiteMED amoxicillin
with 13 percent, and Tiki-Tiki with 11 percent.
Just recently, the India-based pharmaceutical
company, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. entered the Philippine
market to “serve the need for affordable medicines and to compete
head-on with the pharmaceutical giants.”
Rajesh Kumar, senior director of Dr. Reddy’s,
said that the Philippine market has a big gap for affordably-priced
medicines, and that they see the opportunity to offer reasonably
priced medicines just as in India.
“People can hardly access inexpensive medicine
because the market is dominated by high-priced drugs patented to
multinational companies, “ Kumar.
Dr. Reddy’s is the biggest player in the
Indian drug manufacturing sector and has regional headquarters in
Russia, China, Central Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa,
Latin America, Asean and South Africa.
Besides challenging the multinational drug
companies, Dr. Reddy’s is likely to compete closely with Unilab,
since both offer affordable medicines.
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