Prices of medicine seen dropping with stiff competition

Sen. Manuel Roxas II sees prices of medicine dropping with the arrival of a giant India-based pharmaceutical firm.

Speaking at the launching of the Philippine office of Zydus Cadila Healthcare Ltd., Roxas said the company’s sales of about $1 billion are expected to make a dent in the local pharmaceutical industry, which is estimated at around $2 billion annually.

“The total Indian pharmaceutical industry is in the neighborhood of $11 to $12 billion,” he said.

“Zydus is about $850 (million) and it is about 10 percent of the entire pharmaceutical industry of India.”

Ganesh Nayak, Zydus executive director, said the Philippines is one of the “priority markets” of the company in Asia.

“The opening of Zydus’ Philippine office signifies our commitment to support the Cheaper and Quality Medicine Act,” he said.

Since 2004, Zydus products have been marketed in the Philippines by distributors until it opened its office in Makati last year, he added.

Virgilio Dizon, Zydus Philippines Inc. country manager, said they want to make high-quality medicine currently marketed by Zydus in the United States, Europe, Brazil and Japan available to Filipinos at affordable prices.

“Our product portfolio is currently focused on chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, but we plan to market cancer and asthma medicine as well,” he said.

Republic Act 9502, the Universally Accessible, Cheaper and Quality Medicine Act, allows the parallel importation of patented medicine from other countries where it is cheaper and authorizes the government to impose price regulations on essential medicine.    – Sheila Crisostomo