The fight against high-priced medicines continues. In line with the implementation of the Cheaper Medicines Act, the Department of Health, together with its partner agencies, the World Health Organization, the Philippine Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industries, the Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association of the Philippines, GTZ, and PITC-Pharma today host the first ever Philippine Generics Expo in Megatrade Hall 1, 5th floor SM Mega Mall, September 25-26, 2009. It is also being held in celebration of the Generics Awareness Month this September. The Expo highlights quality generic medicine companies and their products which people can buy during the two-day event.
“Generic medicines have been our unsung heroes in the fight against costly, expensive, abusively- priced medicines. All these years, these generic medicine companies have competed against their high-priced innovator counterparts. Such competition has forced some of these high-priced medicine prices to go down to more affordable levels, just as it has further improved the quality of generic medicines through the years. If more and more doctors prescribe generic medicines and more and more people use generic medicines, these offer more competition to further force medicine prices to go down,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III says.
“As a matter of fact, 5 to 6 of 10 Filipinos are indeed using generic medicines now. This emerging generation of wise consumers is surely increasing and it has caused the reduction of many medicine prices already such as of simvastatin, paracetamol, amoxicillin, and many, many more medicines for a variety of diseases. This is why our theme for this year’s Generics Awareness month celebration is “We Love Generics: Join our Generation!,” Duque added.
Further, to show the benefits of generics, the DOH also signs today an agreement with the Cancer Warriors Foundation to invest 20 Million pesos for the purchase of generic anti-cancer medications that is earmarked to benefit children with leukemia. These medicines that would have benefited only a few patients for the same amount due to the high costs of treatment can now help hundreds of leaukemic patients. The medicines are purchased through PITC-Pharma and are 2 to 5 times cheaper than the innovator counterparts but are of excellent quality.
“We love generics because they have always been in the forefront of our fight against expensive healthcare. Many children with cancer die every day because they cannot afford their medication. Hopefully, we see the heroism of generics through the lives of these children we save,” Duque stresses.
Secretary Duque elaborates that even in the midst of the policies recently adopted to make medicines more accessible to all, such as the imposition of ceiling prices for medicines, generic medicines still give much affordable price and much more savings.
A commissioned study recently done by the DOH and the DTI revealed that generic medicines can be up to 80% cheaper than their innovator counterparts.
The Expo also offers free medical consultation, surprise guests, prizes and giveaways to lucky winners, and many more. Concurrently, a current good manufacturing practice workshop shall be conducted to highlight how generic medicine companies in the Philippines have complied with international standards of quality. Thus, quality of generic medicines has greatly improved.
“We remain relentless in our pursuit for quality affordable medicines for all. And we invite all our people to join us in the fight, to join us in Generation Generics!” Duque concluded.
No comments:
Post a Comment