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| Senator Risa Hontiveros/photo courtesy of Philstar |
Senator Risa Hontiveros is asking the Department of Health
(DOH) to pin point the pharmaceutical firms who were apparently petition against
the move to lower the price of at least 120 medicines.
Allegedly, some drug companies
are against in lowering the price of 120 drugs and medicines for common
diseases and conditions like diabetes, heart disease, asthma and different
types of cancer.
Recentrly,
Hontiveros called on the Duterte administration to immediately exercise price
control and regulatory powers granted under the Cheaper Medicines Law or
Republic Act No. 9502, in order to bring down the price of medicines while the
government grapples with the multiple health emergencies facing the country.
The opposition senator, who co-author
of the Cheaper Medicines Law when she was still member of the House of
Representatives, raised this issue on Tuesday during the plenary deliberation
of the DOH’s budget for 2020.
According
to her, there has been several report on some pharmaceutical companies opposing
the proposed use of government’s regulatory powers under the Cheaper Medicines
Act (RA 9502) to lower the “unfair and anti-poor” prices of much-needed
medicines in the country.
She
said that if reports were verified, the firms should be named and should be
queried why they are opposing the initiative to lower the prices of medicines
and why their medicines are more expensive than their international reference
prices (IRP).
“Nanawagan ako sa DOH na
pangalanan ang mga pharmaceutical companies na mas inuuna pa ang kanilang
malalaking tubo at kita kaysa sa buhay at kalusugan ng mamamayan,” Hontiveros said.
“Sa panahon na kaliwa’t
kanan ang epidemiya at mga nagkakasakit, ang presyo ng gamot ay hindi dapat
dagdag-pasakit,” she said.
She recalled that the
government was able to use the power to regulate the prices of medicines and
set the MDRP of five drugs and immediately slashed their price by 50 percent
two years after Congress passed the Cheaper Medicines law.
It
was reported that an association of pharmaceutical companies dismissed the
proposal to impose Maximum Drug Retail Prices (MDRP) on 120 medicines for
various illnesses like hypertension, asthma, and diabetes as “contentious and
counterproductive.
The companies promised that they will coordinate to the DOH “so that government does not have to resort
to price control.” as per report.
Source: Politiko
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