Press Release/26 February 2010 The Department of Health (DOH) upon instructions from Her Excellency Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, today announced the second wave of drug price reductions under the Government Mediated Access Price (GMAP).
The new set of price reductions includes the following drugs/medicines: anti-hypercholesterolemia (Ezetrol and Vytorin),anti-hypertensive (Cozaar and Hyzaar), anti-depressant (Seroxat), anti-psychotic (Leponex), anti-cancer (Tykerb, Zoladex, Zoladex LA and Leunase), anti-asthma (Ventolin Rotapack), anti-coagulant (Coumadin and Fraxiparine), anti-glaucoma (Betoptic, Ciloxan, Isoptocarpine and Quinax), medicines for prostate disorders (Avodart) and fluids for patients on kidney dialysis.
Also included are new introductions into the market, whose prices are amongst the lowest when compared with similar products in the same therapeutic categories. These include the following: anti-hepatitis B/anti-viral (Revovir), antibiotic/anti-bacterial (Levofloxacin Winthrop), anti-inflammatory/pain reliever (Meloxicam Winthrop) and anti-asthma (Seretide with a new device).
“We are happy that eleven drug companies responded to our request and offered their medicines for price reduction. We would like to thank them for their cooperation and also encourage other pharmaceutical companies to follow suit. We shall continue to study how we can achieve the greatest impact from such interventions that will benefit all Filipinos, especially the poor,” Health Secretary Esperanza I. Cabral said.
Most of these price reductions will be effective come March 31, 2010, with a few more to be implemented at a later date when supply issues have already been addressed.
This round of the GMAP is calculated to affect more than two billion pesos of the market, and is expected to generate one billion pesos worth of savings for the public. “Imagine the benefit to chronic kidney disease patients, for example. A 30% cut in their expenses for medicines will translate to an added four months worth of dialysis treatments per year”, Cabral added.
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