DOH rules

There were reports coming from Department of Health (DoH) sources last week that the government is set to add more pharmaceutical products to its Maximum Drug Retail Price (MDRP) list.

This is a welcome development and an indication that the government is not about to buckle down under the pressure of an apparent media campaign to vilify the price-slash move under the Cheaper Medicines Act.

The DoH need not look far for potential entries into the expanded MDRP list. All it has to do is pick from a menu of ethical drugs that are still being promoted in the market by some multinational pharmaceutical companies under their discount card schemes.

The logic is clear: these are products that these companies can afford to sell – and are actually selling - at half their price. By putting them on the MDRP list, the DoH in effect makes the “discounts” permanent and beyond the reach of the marketing whims and tactics of multinational drug firms.

This is important particularly to poor ailing Filipinos. They know that the discount schemes are not permanent since the 50 percent off on the tag price of their medicine requirements are merely part of a promotional ploy. Promotions have limited lives. So, after the promotional period, the price of these vital drugs can simply revert to their original levels.

The DoH can take this fear away by simply putting these pharmaceutical products under the MDRP list. That would also cement the Arroyo administration’s legacy as far as the Filipinos’ aspiration for more affordable drugs is concerned.

This will, of course, be another catch-22 situation for the multinationals like Pfizer who are still using their discount card ploys. If they choose to resist the inclusion of their products being promoted under schemes like the Pfizer’s Sulit Card, that would only confirm fears among Filipino patients that the discounts are not permanent and could vanish at anytime.

If the multinationals like Pfizer say that the products need not be put under MDRP since the “discounts” are intended to be permanent, then their logic fails. Why resist being put under MDRP if the “discounts” are supposed to stay forever? That could only fan earlier suspicions that the discount cards like Sulit might have some hidden features that multinationals would normally not wish to divulge.

Speaking of discount cards, the DoH might wish to put a closure to the controversy earlier sparked by Pfizer’s Sulit.

First, the DoH must fulfil its commitment that it would do a complete audit of the Sulit Card and similar discount schemes. A transparent post-audit report should remove any and all speculations that “incentives” may have been “offered” to doctors to “support” the discount schemes. Both pharmaceutical sector and the medical community would benefit from this audit.

Second, the DoH should fulfil its commitment to come up with a clear set of rules regarding promotional schemes for ethical drugs, specifically discount cards. The electronic information contents of the bar codes and chips embedded in these cards should be transparent as a rule.

We are sure both the audit and the rules will be welcomed even by the multinational drug firms, including Pfizer. They can be the key to the end of Pfizer’s seemingly interminable woes.

A much-needed project

For a while, it was thought that glass etching the numbers and letters combination license on the windshield and windows of vehicles would combat the use of fake license plates on stolen vehicles. But the cost was prohibitive starting at P1,000 per etching and it cannot be done on older vehicles whose windshields and windows may shatter in the process.

A solution to stop rampant carnapping came in the form of the Land Transportation Office’s (LTO) radio frequency identification (RFID) project . It would also ensure that vehicles are properly registered, that they comply with the Clean Air Act and anti-smoke belching regulations, that drivers pay fines, and, that only public utility vehicles with valid franchises on their properly designated routes are allowed to ply the streets.

The RFID project will begin next month and within a year, upon completion of the registration of all vehicles in the country, all vehicles will have electronically encoded RFID tags, the size of the present LTO stickers, on their windshield.

The RFID tags would carry all the necessary information on vehicles such as license, engine, and chassis numbers, last registration date, present owner, among others. The law enforcer need only to point his scanner at a vehicle to determine if there are flash alarms on it to get the needed data. The vehicle does not have to be flagged down as the scanner instantaneously reads a vehicle’s RFID data as it passes, similar but way more advanced and high-tech than the speed radar gun used by traffic enforcers in the United States to determine over-speeding.

There would be no need then for traffic enforcers, some of who have been killed by lawless elements in the past, to ask for the vehicle registration papers because the data would be available to him at the press of a button.

It is therefore not surprising that a large number of motorists have already expressed their wide support for the RFID project to be implemented by LTO with its IT partner Stradcom.

Environmentalists would also welcome the LTO’s RFID project as it would stop the the faking of the carbon emission tests through non-appearance at smoke emission testing centers. No-shows would no longer be possible because no vehicle would be registered without being properly checked and tested.

Unfortunately, it is only now that the RFID is possible. The computerization of the LTO database, again carried out by Stradcom, and the electronic interconnection of government agencies had to be done first to make the RFID work.

The RFID would cost only P350 per vehicle and would be good for 10 years, must cheaper than comprehensive insurance.

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