MANILA -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Monday an executive order imposing a 50-percent price cut on five commonly used medicines whose prices the pharmaceutical companies refused to bring down.

Arroyo said Executive Order (EO) 821, which she signed before delivering the State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday, takes effect on August 15 but she gave the drug firms one month, or until September 15, to fully comply with it.

See updates on President Arroyo's 2009 Sona

The pharmaceutical companies have until August 15 to package, label, and dispose of existing inventory.

Commonly used drugs

The EO 821 listed the commonly used medicine as: the hypertensive Amlodipine (including its S-isomer and all salt form), with a mandatory price range of P9.60-P38.50 depending on its strength; the anti-cholesterol Atorvastatin, with a price range of P34.45-P91.79; the antibiotic/anti-bacterial Azithromycin and all its salt form, with a price range of P108.50-P468; and the anti-cancer drugs Cytarabine (price range of P240-P1,980) and Doxorubicin and all its salt form (price range of P1,465-P2,265.74).

Arroyo said the pharmaceutical firms have voluntarily halved the prices of 16 other essential drugs that address public health concerns, such as hypertension, diabetes, common bacterial infections, amoebiasis (leading cause of diarrhea), and cancers (including leukemia, the leading pediatric cancer killer).

The drug companies also reduced by 10 to 50 percent the prices of 22 other medicines not included in the initial list recommended by the health and trade departments.

The President said any actions circumventing or violating the EO 821 “shall be dealt with accordingly.”

She added that the Department of Health (DOH) will review the list of drugs and their maximum retail prices after three to six months.

According to Arroyo, access to affordable medicine for illnesses that are the leading causes of death will improve the health and productivity of Filipinos, prevent poverty due to high cost of health care, and achieve the Millennium Development Goals for health.

The Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008 (Republic Act 9502) gives the President the power to impose maximum retail prices over drugs enumerated in the law.

The Maximum Drug Retail Price (MDRP) list was based on the leading causes of illnesses and death, the high prices compared to international prices, limited competition in terms of lack of generic counterparts or lack of market access to the said products, and where the innovator product is the most expensive yet most prescribed.

The DOH was also ordered to put in place all the necessary policies and systems to fully implement the EO, while the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) should act on any application for registration of drugs and medicines within 15 days.

The DOH earlier said the EO to lower the prices of 16 drug molecules (or 41 drug preparations) were proposed by various multi-national drug companies as an offshoot of the initial meeting and consultation with President Arroyo last July 8, 2009.

Voluntary price reduction

It said that eight pharmaceutical companies have agreed to also apply voluntary price reduction to 22 other molecules or 31 more products that were not in the MDRP list, bringing the total number to 38 drug molecules (or 72 products).

These medicines are indicated against hypertension, diabetes, influenza, hypercholesterolemia, cancer, arthritis, goiter, allergies and infections.

Meanwhile, small and medium-sized drug outlets with manual systems will also be given until September 15 to comply with voluntary price reduction to enable them to reconcile and validate their inventories and adjust to the changes in drug prices. (JMR/PNA/Sunnex)