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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January 21st, 2008 at 2:55 pm
mr. santayana..
it is obvious you are protecting some vested interest(multinational drug co.), and not the interest of the common people.
do not fool us w/ the yarn re billions of $$ being spent on these and that to develop a drug…what they can do is STOP spending millions of $$$ for doctors travels, seminars, studies, and payments to big stars to promote their branded drugs.
it is pathetic that you would name drop some brand name like LV just to prove your point, but it just showed how shallow your premises are.
maawa ka naman sa taong-bayan!
hindi na nila kayang bumili ng gamot dahil sa napakataas na presyo!
January 21st, 2008 at 1:18 pm
mr. santillana,
either you are a highy paid lobbyist by drug companies or own its stocks, either way you become a part of this sinister campaign of genocide of epic proportion.
our present health system that allows some patient to die because his/her next of kin can not afford to pay up front the cost of hospitalization are becoming the common tragedy in juan dela cruz life. and to do those who manage to buy some time with their borrowed time now are being strangled by the price of pills that was supposedly will give them life.
for the few millions that have access to health insurance the grim prognosis of making them healthy are now questionable due the inflated price of medicine.
the poor that seldom see the doctor in their natural life can not even now buy an affordable simple pain killer without using the money they need to buy the next meal for their loved one.
this is the picture we are seeing now mr.santillana. can you see it?
kayana2/lasvegasnv.
January 21st, 2008 at 4:57 am
Talaga?
Tell that to Pingot.
January 20th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Dear Paul,
Son puras mentiras! What a pack of lies!
While I agree with you on the opprobriousness of the rampant and widespread cases of corruption of our fake government, headed by the fake president, I do believe that the Cheaper Medicine Bill is good for the poor Filipino people. Yes, we do have a choice: to buy our quality medicine at a cheaper cost.
Yes, research and development has a high cost, cost of production is high, gov’t importation is unfair to the business establishment. And this is the same reason this sharks (multinational corporations) are telling the government! Are you their agent or a representative of the poor Filipino people?
Do you know that compared with our Asian neighbors, the Philippines is the only country where the cost of quality medicines is so exorbitant that its ordinary poor citizens cannot afford to buy them. Why is it so? Because your multinational corporations monopolized the production of medicines, and hence their cost. And they do these through the help of our corrupt and fake government. Why is it that China and India can produce quality medicines at very low cost and sell them at very low price to the consumers? Do you think they are of poor quality? If they are of poor quality, why are their people getting healed instead of getting sick when they are taking them? Why are First World countries importing these same medicines?
The cost of R and D of your multinational corporations are high because that is what they want us to believe, high! In reality, they are not! Technologically-advanced R and D nowadays are the cheapest, you only need good scientists/chemists to concoct the idea and the computer-driven equipment will invent your product for you! Nanotechnology has hasten the discovery and invention of things, you can now build anything out of nothing: Biofuels, diamonds, bacterias, medicines, machines. . . Name it, they can produce it.
The cost of production of your multinational communities’ medicines are high because they want us to believe it, high! In reality, they are not!
Let me give you examples of other commodities that are offered at low costs, Dell computers and laptops, Europe’s Aldi and Lidl products. . . And, let us not go farther, just go to Divisoria, and you will see all of them.
Gimme a break, Mr. Santillana! Yours is nothing but another Ms Fernandes. . . Cheapshots!!!
Bob Delfin
January 20th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
To Paul
What has the price of luxury Vuitton handbags to do with cheaper medicines?
However, do not tell me that you do not know that such luxury items mostly are produced in cheap countries with low salaries? They are just ordered to made, and the quality is not from the brand owner but maybe from very low paid asian or african workers. The brand owners only set a standard how it has to look like. That is, why same products without the luxury brand name are sold much cheaper, even they are produced by the same company and the same workers.