World | Philippines
Philippine cheap medicine bill approved
Senators and congressmen jointly passed a bill that would allow President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the health secretary to form a board that would lower the price of medicine.
- By Barbara Mae Dacanay, Bureau Chief
- Published: 17:19 April 29, 2008
Manila: Senators and congressmen jointly passed a bill that would allow President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the health secretary to form a board that would lower the price of medicine.
All senators approved the bill but a minority of congressmen at the House of Representatives did not vote for it.
Senator Mar Roxas, who authored the bill, told Senate on Tuesday that the Cheaper Medicine Bill will give Arroyo and the health secretary power to set price ceiling on medicine.
“This is to ensure transparency and accountability in the setting of prices of medicine, which may not be possible with a drug price regulatory board,'' Roxas said.
Roxas said the passage of the bill “signals the end of the regime of the US pharmaceutical firms that that earned a lot in the Philippines.''
“The bill has taken away the right of the pharmaceutical [firms] to have the patent right on the prices of medicines. It will also allow the government to import medicines made by foreign firms in the Philippines from countries such as India and Pakistan where the prices of medicine are cheaper,'' Roxas said.
Speaker Prospero Nograles has authorised the House contingent in the bicameral conference committee to give in to the Senate version of the bill.
The bicameral version of the bill, a consolidation of the two versions of the bill from both houses of Congress, will be given to Arroyo on Wednesday.
She is expected to sign the bill to make it into a law.
Analysts said the bill, once it becomes a law, would result in the significant reduction of the cost of medicine.
Rolex Suplico, Vice Governor of Iloilo, originally authored the bill when he was in Congress between 1998 and 2001. He refilled the bill from 2004 to 2007.
Earlier, before the passage of the bill, the health department has been importing cheap medicines from India and Pakistan. The medicines were sold by private firms at community drug stores.
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