One year of affordable cholesterol therapy

Patients from all over the country who benefited from a reasonably priced cholesterol-lowering therapy wrote letters of gratitude and commendation to Therapharma, a division of Unilab, which introduced an affordable brand of simvastatin a year ago. Therapharma’s simvastatin was priced half or less compared to other brands of statins.

A series of scientific meetings and celebrations dubbed by Therapharma as the first-year V-day of the affordable simvastatin was held all over the country to pay tribute to the doctors who overwhelmingly supported Therapharma’s product, as well as the company’s Health Plus Value Program which is in line with Unilab’s mission of making medicines more affordable to the Filipino family.

The success of this program indicated that Filipino physicians and patients are now conscious about pharmacoeconomics, which aims to promote drugs which cost less but effective in treating the patients’ medical problems and improving the quality and longevity of their lives.

Medical observers also note that a major indicator of the impact of Unilab’s pharmacoeconomics campaign is that giant multinational companies have rolled back their prices and new product introductions, particularly in the cholesterol-lowering class of drugs, are now more reasonable.

"We should give credit to Unilab’s courageous effort to make the multinational giants follow its trail in bringing down the cost of essential medicines," a heart specialist said.

This is definitely a big cause for celebration, especially for many Filipinos who have not been able to sustain their medication because of the prohibitive prices of most medicines, especially those which are needed for the long-term treatment of chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol problems and lung diseases.

In the field of cardiovascular diseases, an estimated 1.6 million Filipinos are diagnosed with high cholesterol, but there are still millions who are left undiagnosed. More than half of those who are aware that their cholesterol levels are a cause for alarm cannot afford to sustain their cholesterol-lowering treatment.

Being a major risk factor of cardiovascular disease, this gap in the battle against cholesterol is one major reason why cardiovascular disease remains to be the leading cause of death in the country.

Making healthcare affordable is therefore one of the most important factors that need to be addressed to ensure that cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the country, can be prevented.

"We have not only prevented unnecessary price increases on the statin market but I believe we have contributed to the realization of the impossible, and that is for other companies to reduce prices of their drugs", said James Dio, Therapharma general manager, in a speech during their statin’s first birthday celebration.

The price rollback was the first time the medical industry has experienced in years. Patients are definitely the one at the winning end with the 57-percent reduction implemented by a multinational company and the upcoming rollbacks that can be expected from other drug companies as they try to match the prices of pharmacoeconomic drugs.

Therapharma has also announced its plans of launching a new anti-hypertensive drug in the market next year. With the continuous patronage of doctors and patients, it is hoped that pharmacoeconomic drugs will constantly challenge expensive medicines and consequently, make healthcare cost in the Philippines within the Filipino patient’s reach.