ROXAS SAYS SENATE HAS ADDRESSED FEARS
OVER AFFORDABLE-PRICED BILL
Scores oppositors delaying tactics

Senator Mar Roxas, author of the bill that seeks to amend the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines, and thereby lower the cost of medicines in the country, yesterday assured the public that fears of the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP) that the bill could open the floodgates to fake or counterfeit drugs and weaken intellectual property rights protection are unfounded and are meant only to delay passage of the landmark piece of legislation.

The Senate, through its committees on trade and commerce and on health, has already exhaustively addressed these issues, but the PHAP had simply failed to provide credible basis for such fears, Roxas said in a press release.

The senator lamented what he described as the PHAPs desperate move of engaging a high-powered PR firm to undertake a negative campaign against the pro-poor measure.

All the issues that PHAP raised against the bill, including its allegations that fake or counterfeit drugs could proliferate once the bill becomes a law; that the amendments need to be fine-tuned to become complaint with the TRIPS treaty of the WTO; and that these amendments need to be studied longer and in detail, have been sufficiently scrutinized, studied, weighed, and analyzed, he explained.

In fact, the PHAP has been sufficiently heard on these issues, yet it chooses to fan unfounded fears of an alleged total collapse of the drug regulatory framework, thereby causing crisis to public health, instead of explaining the huge price differences between the Philippines and other countries for exactly the same medicines, because of the huge revenues and profits they have been amassing with their near monopoly of the local drug industry, Roxas added.

How could this scary scenario being painted by the PHAP happen when the bill was designed to rationalize and strengthen intellectual property protection for the benefit of the health of the Filipino nation? he asked.

He again cited as example the anti-hypertension drug Norvasc, which costs P44.75 in Manila, but costs only P5 in India; the respiratory tract infection medicine Bactrim 400, which costs P17.75 a tablet in a Mercury Drug outlet, but which according to the International Trade Corporation (PITC) costs only one peso a tablet in Pakistan and only 69 centavos in India; and Ventolin inhaler that sells at P406 at the Mercury Drug Store, but only costs P231 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Roxas said that patent owners are still entitled to adequate remuneration in the exercise of the government use option under the bill. On the matter of fake medicines, he scored the PHAP for making a false generalization that imported drugs are fake. He assured the Association that there are adequate safeguards in place against fake medicines, and at the same time challenged it to assist the BFAD and the DOH into becoming more prepared.

Instead of suing parallel importers, such as the PTIC, I suggest that the PHAP help the government in ensuring that only quality, efficacious drugs enter the country. Better still, if it is sincere in helping Filipinos obtain access to quality affordable medicines, its members should reduce their prices to levels that are not grossly disadvantageous to Filipinos, he said.

Senate Bill 2263, also known as the Roxas amendments, aims to streamline government use options so that the process is shortened and made more adaptive in responding to public health-related problems. Under the present set-up, existing government use provisions require the use of compulsory licensing procedures which are long (from 6 to 10 years) and drawn out, since the process is adversarial. With the bill, harassment suits against government are also prevented.

It seeks to provide easy and greater access to affordable, high-quality medicines through greater market, competition and greater support to Filipino generic drug companies.

Roxas said that greater market competition is good for the pharmaceutical industry as it will lead to more players and thus lower prices. He pointed to the example of his own province, Capiz, where there had been significant reduction in the prices of medicines since the provincial government imported its supply of drugs for sale to the public.

The amendments to the Intellectual Property Code contemplated under the legislative proposals will definitely lead to increased competition in the supply of drugs or medicines because of the importation of much lower-priced identical drugs, among other positive results, he said, reiterating that the amendments are already part of the laws of many countries, such as India, Pakistan, Japan; the Andean Community of Nations composed of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela; the European Union, and the United States. It said the DTI, DOH, BFAD, and the PITC, among other government agencies, support the proposed amendments, which are compliant with World Trade Organization and World Health Organization standards and flexibilities.

The Senate is now nearing completion of its legislative action on the bill. The PHAP, meanwhile, seeks to delay this action by advancing arguments that have essentially been addressed, such as safeguards, public health as guideposts, etc. I think we could no longer ignore the public clamor for affordable quality medicines and therefore should act to terminate the peoples wait for a cure to this malady of high medicine prices, Roxas said.