Thursday, September 13, 2007 Editorial: Cheaper medicines for the masses
FINALLY, the long-suffering, low-income sector in this country shall see the day when it can avail of quality and affordable medicines that have been denied it because of prohibitive prices at the hands of unscrupulous chains of drugstores.
This development is made possible by the Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC) and the Philippine Healthwatch Initiatives, which signed a memorandum of agreement to that effect on the sidelines of the Drug Stores Association of the Philippines (DSAP) convention in Cebu recently.
The partnership spells out the roles of the two organizations in consolidating and integrating all non-government organizations and stakeholders to support the program that will provide cheap quality medicines to the masses.
The PITC, an agency under the Office of the President, oversees the operations of Botika ng Bayan and Botika sa Barangay outlets, which sell medicines at half the price of those sold by commercial drugstores. It is estimated that only 20 percent of the country's population can afford the exorbitant prices of big pharmacies.
It is believed that by reaching out to at least 60 percent of the 80 percent of the underprivileged population, small drugstores can expand their market. If small drugstores make their products competitive they will increase their share of the market, according to Philippine Healthwatch.
After all, cheaper medicines do not necessarily mean that they are less effective than the expensive ones of the same brand, despite extravagant claims in advertisements put out by the big names in the drugs industry.
But better still, Congress should go all out in the campaign to make cheaper medicines available to the all, if only our lawmakers do not succumb to the lavish enticements dangled before their eyes by lobbyists from the giants of the pharmaceutical industry.
