Press Release
July 30, 2009

Pia warns: "Medicine prices voluntarily reduced can be jacked up
by drug firms anytime"

Senator Pia S. Cayetano today urged Malacanang to expand Executive Order 821 to include more essential medicines under price control, including the 21 drugs originally endorsed by the Department of the Health (DOH) to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

EO 821 sets the maximum drug retail prices (MDRP) of five commonly used essential medicines which drug firms have refused to bring down. The EO was signed on Monday by Pres. Arroyo before delivering her State of the Nation Address (SONA).

"Why did Malacanang include only five and not all of the essential drugs originally endorsed by the DOH to be covered by EO 821? I appreciate the initiative of drug companies to voluntarily bring down prices, but this is no guarantee to our people that prices will stay that way because the government has no mechanism to bind them to those commitments. That's why the government should include all essential medicines in the EO," stressed Cayetano, Chairperson of the Committee on Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development.

A principal author and co-sponsor of the Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008 (Republic Act 9502), Cayetano said expanding the EO to cover more essential medicines will hold both government and drug firms directly accountable to the people in pursuing the objectives of the landmark law.

"I'm not privy to the negotiations that preceded EO 821 but I'm assuming that the price reductions came about as a product of negotiations and the voluntary gesture of pharmaceutical companies that can be withdrawn or suspended anytime. But where will this leave our people? And what happens to the mandatory component of MDRP as envisioned in the Cheaper Medicines Law?"

"The government wouldn't have any control over prices of essential medicines that were voluntarily halved by the drug firms. Thus, the prices of these drugs can be easily jacked up by the drug firms anytime, like a week after SONA, or maybe even as early as tomorrow."

"If this happens, we won't be able to do anything about it, including the President and people who are dependent on these drugs, especially our senior citizens."

"Malacanang should move to include the 16 other essential medicines in EO 821 when the drug manufacturers themselves have already shown the capacity to bring their prices down. The cheaper medicines law will be toothless with a vastly emaciated MDRP list."

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