[Ip-health] Philippines: 'Cheap drug' program is dead

[James Love]

This is an opinion article about the lack of support for cheaper imports
of medicines, in favor of the domestic industry.  Jamie

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/abs_news_body.asp?section=3DOpinion&oid=3D17297

Monday, March 3, 2003 11:56:39 p.m

'Cheap drug' program is dead

=09COUNTERPOINT
By ALVIN CAPINO

=09Dayrit=92s priority is to promote the generic drug manufacturing program
of the big multinational companies instead of importing the cheap but
quality branded medicines from India.

Forget the program for the parallel importation of cheap medicines from
India. The program is good as dead with the apparent disinterest of
Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit in pushing it.

In an interview with Dayrit in our afternoon radio program at DWIZ, it
was clear that the parallel importation of the cheap drugs from India is
low on the priority of the health department under Dayrit.

It was clear from Dayrit that his priority is to promote the generic
drug manufacturing program of the big multinational companies instead of
importing the cheap but quality branded medicines from India.

Dayrit=92s apparent bias toward the multinational companies that have been
amassing immense profits from selling high-priced drugs for decades
appears clear. It shows from his actions not only on this but also on
the issue of the stricter regulation of medicines with
phenylpropanolamine (PPA), which he has been opposing because of the
effect on the pharmaceutical industry.

The discontinuance of the importation of cheap branded drugs from India
is distressing. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself has endorsed
the program although this was started under the Estrada administration
by Secretary Mar Roxas, who was also at the helm of the Department of
Trade and Industry at that time.

Mrs. Arroyo obviously saw the advantage of bringing in branded basic
medicines from India that cost as low as 25 percent or even less than
the medicines being sold by the same pharmaceutical companies.

The medicines from India were being sold at government hospitals. Arroyo
administration drumbeaters even mentioned the availability of these
cheap medicines from India in one of the government=92s infomercials.

But now, there is not much that Mrs. Arroyo could do if her own alter
ego at the health department does not think much of the parallel
importation program. The department is the key to the program=92s success.
If Dayrit doesn=92t push it, the program will not move.

If Dayrit wanted to make the program viable, he could have done much.
For one, besides selling the India-sourced branded medicines at
government hospitals, he could have made Indian pharmaceutical companies
the source of medicines distributed by the Department of Health to
health centers nationwide. No Philippine-based pharmaceutical company
can compete, in prices, with an India-based counterpart.

Using medicines from India would have resulted in big savings for the
Department of Health. Medicine distribution program would have at least
doubled for the benefit of the poor.

But this apparently was not an option for Dayrit. As he mentioned in our
interview, the pharmaceutical industry in the Philippines is an
P80-billion industry. He apparently is not inclined, because of his
background, to do something that would threaten the industry=92s profit
picture.