Drug store owners want suspension of medicine price cuts

MANILA, Philippines – The Drugstore Association of the Philippines (DSAP) asked the Department of Health (DOH) yesterday to suspend the implementation of the Government-Mediated Access Price (GMAP) or the voluntary medicine price cuts.

In a telephone interview, DSAP board chair Joseph Inocencio said the DOH should shelve GMAP as they still have no “reimbursement agreement” with the pharmaceutical firms.

“We have already made that request during our meeting. We were asking that GMAP not be implemented last March 31 but it still pushed through,” he said.

Last March 31, the DOH started implementing the second wave of price cuts involving 97 medicine and medical devices whose prices must be slashed by up to 50 percent.

The list includes drugs to treat hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, bladder and prostate disorders, depression, psychosis, and cancer, as well as anti-coagulants and antibiotics.

The products come from 11 pharmaceutical firms that volunteered to adjust their prices.

Inocencio said only one drug firm has a reimbursement system so it is not yet clear how they could get a refund from the other firms.

“So what some drug stores are doing now is they stop selling the products,” she said.

GMAP is provided for under Republic Act 9505, the law that provides for universally accessible cheaper medicine, which was passed in August 2009.

The law also provides for Maximum Drug Retail Prices (MDRP) or mandatory price cuts and parallel importation of patented medicine.

The DOH warned that violators may face penalties of up to P5 million and the closure of their business.

The DOH estimates that consumers stand to save some P1 billion annually from price cuts provided by GMAP.