List Of Reduced Price Of 97 Drugs Should Be Sent Now To Various Drugstores Nationwide Now

May 27,2010
List of Reduced Price Of 97 Drugs Should Be Sent Now To Various Drugstores Nationwide
By Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.
Just recently I have read a report published in the Philippine Star that the prices of 97 drugs including medical devices have been reduced to 50% effective March 31, 2010. It was said that this is the second batch of drugs whose prices have been reduced. The first batch has also 50% price reduction implemented starting last August 2009. This was announced by the DOH Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral.
The price reduction, Cabral revealed, were the 2 batches of drugs that implemented the voluntary price cut under the Government-Mediated Access Price (GMAP), a component of Cheaper Medicine Act. However, until this time of writing, May 20, 2010, two big drugstores here have not yet received guidelines regarding this new price cut on 97 drugs. What they have were the list of 43 drugs subjected to 50% reduction posted inside the drugstores, but not conspicuous with the consuming public. Except at Mercury Drugstore. They said pharmaceutical companies whose prices of some drugs were reduced have not yet send guidelines to them for reference.
Does this mean that DOH’s inspectors from Manila were not dispatch to monitor compliance in drug outlets nationwide? Cabral said violators of the price reduction will be fined P50M. But how can the drugstores implement such reduced price on the 97 drugs if they don’t have guidelines? The reduced drugs’ prices we were informed come from pharmaceutical companies that supported the voluntary reduction of commonly used medication.
These drugs are: anti-hypercholesterolemia, anti-hypertensive,anti-depressant,antipsychotic,anti-cancer,anti-coagulant,antibiotic, including medication for bladder and prostrate disorders.
This report is really a good omen to sick people particularly for poor Filipinos who could hardly afford to buy medicines. But when will the people outside Metro Manila can benefit and enjoy this privilege in price cut of some drugs if drug companies that sponsored the drug price reduction did not send their respective guidelines to different drugstores in the Visayas and Mindanao?
WE hope that the new Department of Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral is sincere and serious in her announcement by sending inspectors to various provinces in the entire country to see that this new DOH Directive is being implemented. It is also important that the Health Secretary will send copies of the DOH Directive to the mother drugstores in all regions with instructions for the implementation of this new Directive.
It is likewise essential that the pharmaceutical companies that sponsored the drugs that have 50% price cut will receive instructions from DOH to send guidelines as soon as possible to all drugstores in the archipelago. In this way the implementation of this scheme will be put into immediate action and that most importantly the poor Filipinos can now buy the medicines they need with 50% price cut.(Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.)