Senate allots P1 B for cheaper drugs

The Senate has approved a P1-billion budget for the Department of Health for the parallel importation of affordable medicines for various diseases that would be made available in the market with the implementation of the Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008.

The budget will be used to buy 25 essential medicines to treat hypertension, diabetes, asthma and cancer, as well as antibiotics, at vastly cheap prices compared to those available in local drugstores and hospitals.

Sen. Manuel Roxas II, one of the authors of the law, said the DOH must ensure that the medicine imported under the program would not exceed the price ceilings as determined by the department.

“We will not use taxpayers money to buy expensive medicines when in fact the cheaper variety is available as provided for by the DOH,” he said.

During the budget deliberations, Roxas received a commitment from the DOH that it would prepare by January 2009 a list of 25 essential medicines - consisting of drugs to treat hypertension, diabetes, asthma and cancer, as well as antibiotics - and their corresponding price ceilings.

The maximum prices determined are a result of meetings between members of academe, the pharmaceutical industry, the Philippine Medical Association, the Drugstores Association of the Philippines and non-government organizations, among others.