WHAT has our country become? Are we still democratic or is this the start of our shift to totalitarianism?
With the passage of the cheaper medicines bill, our right to choose what we want to buy and how much we want to spend for it has now been curtailed. Now the government will start telling you what to buy and dictate to businesses how much they must sell their goods for.
Businesses are now at the mercy of the government as they will now be run from the outside. Entrepreneurs be warned! It is now dangerous to set up shop in the Philippines. No wonder foreign investors pulled out, which made our stock market fall 100 points (3 percent) today. I cannot believe that our congressmen could pass such a bill that has effectively cut free trade in this country built and known for its democratic way of life.
How I wish they could have considered these several points that I will highlight:
1. There are costs in producing medicines. The higher the quality, the more investment that will be needed. How can you produce a 500mg Amoxicillin capsule at P1.50 if the cost of the raw materials alone, less the production cost, is already at P2.50??? What does this tell you? I wonder just how much of the medicine is actually inside these capsules; do the math. Will these congressmen honestly use generic brands when their own children get sick? Take this P1.50 Amoxicillin in front of a camera Mr. Congressman.
2. Researching a new drug takes years to develop. The company will run countless tests and endless re-tests to develop a brand. This will take millions, even billions in investment. The patent will ensure that they are properly compensated for all the hardship. Now, the government would like to just step in and cash in on the hard work of others.
3. Parallel importation is so unfair to business as the government will benefit from the marketing and promotion of the company selling the brand locally. Plus the fact that now, you won’t be sure if the branded product that you are buying is the real thing or the low quality parallel-imported one. Has everyone forgotten that the reason for getting into business is to earn a profit? The pharmaceutical industry is a business, my dear congressmen, not a charitable institution. Therefore, it is not their fault if they are selling and promoting their products for profit! The best that you could have done for the people is to put an end to corruption and give out free medicine, which we taxpayers have paid for. Our health centers have long been out of stock of vaccines and medicines that used to be given for free to the poor. Where has the budget for all these products gone? We have one of the highest taxes in the region, yet this benefit is not being enjoyed by the poor. This is because for every peso collected, only 0.40 goes back to us and we lose the rest to corruption.
The passage of this bill sends chills to my spine as now it has set the precedent for other monstrous things to happen. Who’s to suffer next? Maybe the cost of the Louis Vuitton bag is much too high for the government that they would next pass a bill telling LV to sell it at only P500.00 as they find it overpriced! I really am dreading what’s in store for businesses here in this country. Totalitarianism will drive our booming economy to the ground.
– Paul Santillana, Sikatuna Village, Quezon City, Philippines (via e-mail)
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May 3rd, 2008 at 6:30 am
My Dear Friend,
They say; it is a free world… it is up for grab.. and if you are really greedy .. you can have it all. I am in the Pharmaceutical business for more or less 20 years, currently I have my own drug-outlets (Botika), and some how making reasonable profit from this business. I have observed that many pharmacetical companies both foreign and local, are in very active practice of buying Prescription from Doctors for both govt., and private. The reality dictates that in order to survive in a dynamic and very competitive pharma market is to actively participate in promotional activites. When I say promotional activites these are doctor sample. literature, cost of having Medical Rep., and managers, perks for pharmaceutical personnel, perks for doctors ( sponsorship, dine-out, sometimes with family, trips abroad) cars for pharmaceutical personnel ( imagine an ordinary office staff have a car plan) product deals to Doctors and to drugstores, and among others. These are the reality in the pharmaceutical industry, sad to say the poor Juan de la Cruz shoulders these expenses through paying the higher cost of medicine. In my business, I have no problem dispensing Generic Meds., to be honest generic products sales grew by +45%( CAAG -YTD March 2007- 2008) and still growing. This is an indication that more and more buying public are into generic ( bioequivalent to branded products). The approval of cheaper medicine bill will be a great help to the greater poor ( Class C, D & E) and especially to the poorest among the poor. The bill will be great challenge to multinational companies. I have heard the majority of them, in order to survive, have to scale down business operation in the next 48- 62 months ( they have to do this in order to survive) and at the same time tream down expenses or worse closed shop. I am expecting 50 to 60% reduction of business activities for Multinational companies (due to parallel importation).This is the first phase on the effect of the bill to the multinational. But let us see the other side of the coin, The cheaper medicine bill will bring a new set of players in the pharmaceutical industry. A new business, specifically the trading budiness and retailing business, will play a major role in making the bill work. But there is also another side of the story, it may discourage local manufacturer to actively participate in the indutsry.It is expected that local drug companies will suffer the same faith as their multinational counterpart. The local manufacturer will have a big tool of loosing market share for teir products as cheaper branded from India and Pakistan will sold by large retailers in the market. The bill specifically mentioned that anybody who have the capitalization to go for distribution will have a greater advantage. Currently we have big players in the distributuin market, Mercury, Mansons, Watsons,Carlos Drug and among others are in better position or I may say will greatly benefit from the bill. The bill allows , any body, to do parallel importation for both branded and generic products. Mercury for sure will have its own Amox. paracetamol, anti-HPN lines and etc., giving an tense market competition in the industry. Other key players in the retailing business will surely respond to the trend. In effect beneficial to the buying public. the question now is how will benefit from this business, in the long run, Indian and Pakistan drug manufacturer. These companies form india and pakistan will be in better position coz of the large demand from the philippine market ( Phil. Pharma market is expected to grow by $3.5 billion in 2010, with ave. anuual growth of +8%.). The Phil., pharmaceutical manufacturer industry have to trim down operation in the long-run in order to survive. The question is , did the bill will eventaully achieved its objective, the answer is definetly YES!! it will lower the price of Branded medicine by as much as; 50% for the next 24 months and 75% for the next 48 months. What will happened to the pharma industry, a new set of players will come in, redifining the key players. Remember, the pharma market is billion dollar market, any businessman will surely wants a big cake !
April 4th, 2008 at 12:38 am
i just got to read all the comments here and i regret that i didn’t find this thread sooner so that my resolve on this was still BOILING when i read your comments.
obviously, a lot of you have missed the point of my mail (it was directed to inquirer by the way and not to the masses to comment to). this i say to clarify that i am not lobbying for pharmaceutical companies. these thoughts are my thoughts. i said these things coz i feel that the government has no right in meddling in any private business, whatever it is. and that is the point of all this… FREE TRADE my dear ladies & gentlemen! we work hard for our money and we deserve every penny we earn from it!
you are just giving these not so smart legislators more will and power to do what they want with the tone of what most of you are saying. TO INTRUDE IN EACH AND EVERY LITTLE THING THEY WANT TO STICK THEIR GREEDY FINGERS INTO.
and most of you are uneducated indeed when it comes to the pharma industry in our country as the GENERICS LAW has been in place since the 80’s and what this bill wants to achieve is just to make the authors of this bill rich, in the guise of course of helping the masses. they are smart in this sense! believe me, THEY DUPED YOU INTO THINKING THAT THEY REALLY WANTED TO HELP YOU when in fact they just want to help themselves to MORE of our money!
wake up and smell the coffee my dear countrymen. can’t you still spot a POLITICAL CON even after everything that has already happened to our country????
and to ROILO, just to end, OF COURSE Louis Vuitton is totally unrelated to the medicines! it was just a pun intended to stress a point! i just wanted to DRAMATICALLY express that now, any business can just be taken over by our government if they feel like it! my god, should i explain everything!?!
ADIOS!
February 28th, 2008 at 1:13 am
Erap the convicted thief was talking.
February 13th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
I would asume that the person who started this blog is into medicine business or has a relative who is into meds business…and this person or the relative of this person is very very very much affected…MAWAWALAN SYA NG KIKITAIN!!!!!!
bwahahahahaha
Cheaper meds….SOUNDS VERY GOOD TO ME…I DONT CARE WHAT THE BILL SAYS…ALL I CARE ABOUT IS ME..MY FAMILY AND MY COUNTRYMEN WILL HAVE ACCESS TO CHEAPER MEDICINES…
Ok na ako dun sa merong 5 negosyante na mawawalan ng kita…kung imupara naman natin na milyon milyong pilipino ang makikinabang…
February 6th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I would be joining the “less informed” bandwagon and therefore i am agreeing more with the points raised by kulagukoy.
Do we have a link to where i can possibly access the draft of the bill (both the senate and the lower house version)?
denshi: don’t you think it’s a bit naive to presume a provision would equivocally mandate:
“doctors to prescribe generic medicines ONLY, and holds them liable if they prescribe branded medicines.”
i havent’ read the bill so all i am trusting is my practical assumption that the bill is there to help people have access to cheaper medicine. so there must be something wrong with the way you interpreted the line, hence I would request if you can give the drafted provision.
now, I too have a lot of questions. Is the bill there to substantially lower the cost of medicine by providing non-branded access to medicine ONLY? or will the patients be prescribed INNs and will have the freedom to choose which brand they would take or afford? i mean for example, my doctor would prescribe paracetamol the options are up for me to pick either tylenol, panadol, panamax, calpol, etc. whatever suits my pocket.
One of my prime considerations to curing illness is the cost it would take me to heal. A lot share that sentiment hence we still have the flourishing quack docs. poor people like me would often look for something accessible and affordable more than effectiveness. taking medicine with perceived low efficacy can still keep a “placebo effect” among sufferers of certain diseases on the idea that they are taking something to relieve them of their afflictions than not having taking anything at all. The rich and those who long for the supposed “quick” healing through expensive drugs should keep that prerogative on them. But give the poor access to cheaper medicine.
And one fast reaction to arnel’s resentment: too defeatist IMHO. Cmon, how much of the poor file law suits stemming from the line “dok, ba’t ang tanggal gumaling?” But if the line would start at, “dok ba’t namatay sya sa nireseta nyong gamot” really that is a cause for concern if the doc will answer back “dahil kseh mumurahin ang gamot” now I guess BFAD should look at the proliferating medical products closely or the offending doc might want to start questioning his expertise. Medical factors such as the urgency of taking medicines, approaching the doctor at the right time, taking the right dosage and combination, addressing the first line therapy, etc. is as complex as any disease itself. Compounded with the fact that most poor sufferers find it hard to secure required medicine because of the oppressive price tags, a lot will end up dead really.