ROXAS: INSTITUTE REFORMS IN PITC ASAP
MEETS WITH DRUG STORE OWNERS IN CEBU ON MEDICINES BILL

Senator Mar Roxas called on the government to strengthen and institute reforms in the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) to maximize the benefits of the new Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act.

"In order to have real impact at the onset, we must have a strong PITC that would implement the government's parallel importation program," he said.

"As the IRR is being finalized, we are already encouraging organized groups to order affordable medicines via PITC as a start. The PITC management must get its act together fast, because the initial stages of the law's implementation are practically in their hands," he stressed.

Roxas met yesterday with members of the Drug Stores Association of the Philippines (DSAP) in Cebu to discuss with them how they could take advantage of the tools under the Cheaper Medicines Law, and to hear their inputs and concerns on the new law's implementation.

"Nananabik ang mga may-ari ng botika sa bagong batas, pero tinatanong nila kung kakayanin ba itong ipatupad ng PITC (While the drug store owners are enthusiastic about the new law, they raised concerns about whether PITC can handle it)," he said.

"All these concerns and complaints raised about the performance of PITC in the past must be reviewed and addressed now. PITC must get its act together now, if we want to win this war against the regime of exorbitantly-priced medicines," he said.

For instance, DSAP members complained about how PITC had coordinated with them and their accredited distributors, leading to confusion on the delivery of and payment for medicines. Also, DSAP members raised concerns about PITC's policy requiring them to notify PITC six months prior to the expiration of ordered medicines before they could return such.

He also received complaints on the high markup imposed by PITC on the prices of medicines. "PITC should only recover cost, including administrative and other such costs," he said.

"Hindi naman dapat na kumita sila dahil hindi naman sila pangkaraniwan na commercial enterprise. Government service dapat ito," he stressed.