Manufacturers of substandard generic drugs face stiffer sanctions.
Health Secretary Alfredo Romualdez said yesterday the government may suspend the license to operate of makers of low-quality generic drugs or close them down.
"There is an urgent need to improve the image of domestic and imported generic medicine," he said. "The substandard quality of generic drugs is the primary reason why doctors refuse to prescribe generic drugs."
Meanwhile, local distributors of herbal medicine called yesterday for the immediate implementation of the Traditional and Alternative Medicine Act (TAMA).
Romualdez said the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PHRMA) has offered technical support to improve the quality of local generic drugs to make them more competitive with imported ones.
PHRMA executives visited the country recently to discuss with health department officials a plan to limit the use of brand names in pharmaceutical products, as well as parallel importation to bring down the cost of medicine.
Romualdez said prices of drugs in the Philippines have remained high because substandard generic drugs cannot compete with brand name medicine.
But he assured the public the Department of Health (DOH) will remove low-quality generic drugs from the market and government health facilities nationwide.
More than 1,000 substandard drugs have already been banned after being stricken off the list of medicines registered with the Bureau of Food Drugs (BFAD), he added.
Romualdez said the agency has been reorganized and strenthened to ensure that only quality medicine and other pharmaceutical products are available for Filipinos.
Lito Abelarde, distributor of herbal medicine and food supplements, said TAMA's implementation would give Filipinos a better alternative to expensive pharmaceutical products.
TAMA would facilitate the production, sale and use of more affordable herbal medicine as a counterbalance to expensive imported drugs, he added.
Although he welcomed the move to make imported medicine with brand names available to all Filipinos, Abelarde urged the DOH to give attention to TAMA's implementation.
"The current attention focused on the exorbitant prices of western pharmaceutical products is good," he said. "But it must be pointed out that an even more important measure to take, but has not been given enough attention, is the full implementation of TAMA."
Congress passed TAMA in 1997 to speed up the development of traditional and alternative health care and its integration into the national health care delivery system.
The law created the Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care to formulate standards and guidelines for the marketing and quality control of traditional and alternative health care products.
TAMA's implementing rules and regulations were approved only in December, he added.
Abelarde said the BFAD should come up with a workable criteria to make the registration of herbal medicine more easy.
He urged the government to look for other sources of funding for research and development of new herbal medicine as well as to encourage acceptance of BFAD-registered herbal medicine by doctors and the public.
More than 10,000 species of medicinal plants are waiting to be tapped for use of millions of Filipinos who have no access to medication and alternative care.
Several native herbal drugs have gained international recognition and more countries are studying ways to develop them for commercial use.
Officials of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) said production of herbal medicine could be a major dollar earner and reduce the country's $1-billion outlay for the purchase of imported drugs.
However, Filipinos have become dependent on imported drugs although they have the resources and capability to develop their own products, the DOST officials said.
Indigenous herbal drugs like sambong and lagundi have registered some P36 million in sales annually, the officials said.
The DOST urged the DOH and BFAD to speed up the approval of rules and regulations for the registration and marketing of herbal medicine.