[Ip-health] Manila Standard on Philippines Parallel Import Legislation

[Mike Palmedo]

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=3Dpolitics4_sept10_2007

Senate begins work on cheap medicines

by Fel V. Maragay
Manila Standard
September 10, 2007

The Senate is rushing the deliberations on the bill that will bring down
prices of commonly used medicines, making it the first legislative
measure likely to be approved by the Chamber since the 14th Congress
convened last July.

Senator Mar Roxas, chairman of the committee on trade and commerce, will
convene a public hearing on the cheap medicines bill today, marking the
start of weekly hearings on the measure until all its aspects are
discussed and all the interested parties are heard.

The hearings will be conducted jointly with the committee on health and
demography.

=93I urge everyone to unite in this single cause to ease the burden of our
countrymen who are in dire need of quality, affordable medicines,=94 Roxas
said.

Senate Bill 101, authored by Roxas, seeks to amend the Intellectual
Property Code to enhance competition in the lucrative drug market,
encourage the production and entry of lower-priced medicines, strengthen
the local generics industry and provide ample muscle to the government
in times when public health is at stake.

The cheap medicines bill was originally intended to be approved during
the last few days of session of the 13th Congress last June. But while
the Senate was able to pass its own version of the bill, the House of
Representatives failed to do so.

Multinational pharmaceutical firms were blamed for the setbacks in
enacting the bill. They have been aggressively lobbying against the
passage of the measure.

Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. has promised to take steps to ensure early
approval of the bill. The House has consolidated 16 bills on cheap
medicines into one proposal.

The Roxas bill seeks to adopt the "international exhaustion" doctrine in
order to allow the parallel importation of more affordable medicines
from other countries. Fel V. Maragay

--
Mike Palmedo
Research Coordinator
Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property
American University, Washington College of Law
4910 Massachutsetts Ave., NW Washington, DC 20016
T - 202-274-4442 | F 202-274-0659
mpalmedo@wcl.american.edu