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Sen. Mar Roxas will make a great headway in his quest for the
presidency once the Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality
Medicine Law is fully implemented and starts benefiting millions of
sick Filipinos. I am certain that if Mar projects himself well on
this issues, he could give early survey leaders Vice President Noli
de Castro, Sen. Manny Villar, Sen. Chiz Escudero and former
President Erap Estrada a stiff competition.
I admire the stick-to-itiveness of Mar on the
implementation of what is popularly known as Cheaper Medicine Law.
As far as I am concerned, this law is Mar’s baby and if it becomes
a success, all of its beneficiaries will be more apt to vote for him
in 2010. Sure, the House of Representatives had a lot of inputs at
the bicameral conference committee but it was Mar that loomed large
at the bicam.
Law is Mar’s baby
The House wanted to put a “generics only”
provision in bicam. Mar put his foot down. It had also insisted on
the creation of a Drug Price Regulatory Board. Mar claimed that this
provision was part of a “last-ditch effort” by the drug cartel
to derail the implementation of the Cheaper Medicine Act. He said it
is difficult to pinpoint responsibility in a board that he predicted
to be the dumping ground of “election losers and relatives of
powerful politicians. The Senate version preferred to empower the
Office of the President, through the recommendation of the Secretary
of Health, to regulate drug prices with the setting of maximum
retail price (MRP) for essential medicines. In both contentious
issues, the House backtracked so the Senate version—or, should I
say, Mar’s version—came out in the law signed by President
Arroyo.
Mar was confident that the law as amended would
lower drug prices. It provides for parallel importation to improve
competition, and the strengthening of the Bureau of Food and Drugs
so it can process the importation of quality drugs faster. In a
complementary move, he sponsored the creation of a P1-billion
special fund in the 2009 budget to jumpstart the implementation of
the measure through the importation of quality drugs from India.
Parallel importation amends the Intellectual
Property Code to enable the importation of patented drugs and
allow generic manufacturers to test, register, produce drugs prior
to the expiration of a patent, which is normally 20 years. BFAD will
process importation by the private sector to determine the quality
of the drugs and if they are checked by their country of origin.
Of course, there are warnings that the law might
turn out to be a dud, just like the Electric Power Industry Reform
Act that has failed to deliver the promised lower power rates and
increased competition. Will it go the way of the EPIRA? Well, not if
Mar can have his way. And that is why he is looking at all the nuts
and bolts in the law’s implementation. This he does as co-chairman
with Palawan Rep. Antonio Alvarez of the Quality Affordable Medicine
Oversight Committee.
No reason to smile?
So far, Mar is grousing over the slow approval
by Malacañang of the MRP for 22 essential medicines consisting of
drugs to treat hypertension, diabetes, asthma and cancer, as well as
antibiotics drugs. The MRP would cut the price of the medicines by
50 percent. Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd submitted the list
last June 10 for President Arroyo’s approval. The President met
with leaders of drug firms in Malacañang on July 8 to hear their
proposals on the proposed MRP. The President reportedly gave the
drug firms 10 days to or until July 18 to voluntarily cut their
prices by 50 percent or else she would sign the EO on the MRP.
If there is one thing that I would fault Mar, it
is his over-zealousness. For the life of me, I could not understand
why he invited President Arroyo to the July 13 hearing of the
oversight committee to shed light on the July 8 meeting in Malacañang.
He could have gotten the needed information from Cabinet members or
officials of drug firms who attended the meeting. No President had
ever been invited to a committee hearing. A President appears before
Congress merely to deliver the annual State of the Nation Address! I
was not surprised at all when none of the executive officials
invited attended the hearing.
I believe that Mar’s unprecedented move
inviting the President to testify is merely meant to gain him
more media mileage. I hope he will stop such cheap shots or gimmicks
for they demean his avowed noble aim.
efrendanao2003@yahoo.com
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