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By Dante “Klink” Ang 2nd, Executive
Editor
KARACHI, Pakistan: The Philippines should look
at Pakistan as a source of affordable medicines, an envoy told The
Manila Times.
Muhammad Naeem Khan, Pakistan’s ambassador to
the Philippines, said he was “shocked” when he bought medicines
in Manila, where the prices were as much as 50 percent higher than
identical or similar products in his home country.
Philippine lawmakers have been struggling for
several years to pass a bill intended to bring down the costs of
medicines. On Monday, Philippine Health Undersecretary Alexander
Padilla said foreign pharmaceuticals might step up their lobby
effort—and even file cases in court—to prevent the bill from
becoming a law.
“Our own [pharmaceutical] companies have
become very strong,” Khan said, adding that Pakistan now has the
capability to export drugs. It’s not Pakistan’s main export
products, though, which are mainly garments and agricultural goods.
Foreign pharmaceutical firms enjoy a virtual
monopoly in the Philippines, which largely explains the high costs
of drugs that Filipinos are paying, the envoy said. “Your own
industry has to come up.”
Another Pakistani official said his government
helps ensure medicines are affordable by keeping taxes on those
products low.
Botika ng Bayan
So keen is Khan on selling drugs to the
Philippines, that he invited an official from the Philippine
International Trading Corp. (PITC) to visit Pakistan, who later told
the envoy that the medicines he saw during his visit were
“world-class.”
That state-owned company is at the forefront of
government’s effort to lower the costs of medicines in the
Philippines. It established the Botika ng Bayan, where Filipinos can
buy cheaper drugs. It is also facing a legal battle against
pharmaceutical giant Pfizer over intellectual property issues that
resulted from the Philippine government’s parallel importation of
medicines from India.
Khan has also invited Filipino journalists to
Pakistan, a move that he hopes will foster greater awareness and
friendship between his home country and the Philippines. The
Philippine delegation, which includes The Times, is now in Karachi
and will be traveling to Islamabad (the capital) and Lahore to meet
with officials and look at local medicines.
The media visit, the second organized by the
Pakistani Embassy in Manila, is part of his plan to boost economic
ties with the Philippines. Khan said he plans to organize a trade
mission to Pakistan to attend a trade fair and explore business
opportunities in October.
Karachi drug prices
In Karachi, the Filipino journalists met Gerry
Alas, an engineer from Siargao, Surigao del Norte, working for the
Swedish telecommunications firm Ericsson.
A sleeve of Biogesic with six tablets costs just
10 rupees (about P6.25), he said. In Manila, the cost is about P5 a
tablet (or P30 for six tablets). A rupee is equivalent to P1.6
pesos.
Another drug, Immodium, costs half as much in
Karachi as it does back home, Alas added.
Pakistan is not without problems, though.
A study conducted by The Network of Consumer
Protection in Pakistan and published in 2004 confirms that the
Pakistani government is successful in distributing affordable
medicines to its poor citizens—about 30 percent of its estimated
163-million population.
But the survey, which looked at the prices and
availability of 29 medicines, also mentioned that there was
inadequate supply of medicines at government health facilities.
“The prices of medicines in private pharmacies
in Pakistan are generally lower than in other developing countries,
but higher than in India,” according to the study’s key
findings.
Pharma lobby
In Manila, a leading administration ally in the
House of Representatives challenged President Gloria Arroyo on
Tuesday to sign immediately into law the Universally Accessible
Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008, which was passed by both
the House and Senate contingents to the Legislative-Executive
Development Advisory Council.
Rep. Monico Puentevella of Bacolod City, an
author of the proposed law, said the chief executive should sign it
into law this week or at the latest next week.
“The sooner the President signs it, the better
because her action will stop on its tracks any foreign intervention
to delay enactment of the law,” Puentevella told The Manila Times
in a chance interview.
“We don’t care about the interests of
big pharmaceuticals. What we care about is to lower the price of
medicines and give the people a break at this time when the upward
trajectory of the prices of rice, electricity and gasoline looks
unstoppable,” Rep. Puentevilla told The Times.
-- With Sammy Martin
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