In my credit card bills, my purchases can be classified into just two categories: supermarket and Mercury Drug.
Such is life in this country for many of us who do not belong to the privileged 30 percent of this country. Whatever money we earn goes to food and other basic needs and medicines.
That’s why I welcome the agreement signed by Interphil and the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) for the former to process essential generic pharmaceutical products using formulations and active ingredients provided by the latter.
Interphil, the Zuellig Group’s publicly traded contract pharmaceutical arm in the Philippines, will manufacture some 20 off-patent drugs as part of President Arroyo’s commitment to cut the costs of selected drugs for the poor by some 50 percent.
Until I read the Interphil-PITC agreement, I thought Zuellig was a Swiss-based multinational company operating in the Philippines. A Google search informed me that the history of the Zuellig group can be traced to the 1900s when a Swiss, Eduard Zuellig, established a company in Manila. Today, the Zuellig group is one of the largest privately-owned companies in the world with a turnover of $5 billion. It’s one of the leading businesses in the Asia Pacific region and is into pharmaceuticals, healthcare, agri-business, and properties.
Roberto Romulo, former foreign secretary who is chairman of the Zuellig Group, holding company of Zuellig Pharma, said they are proud of the company’s long heritage in the Philippines and are pleased that they could respond positively to the government’s request to assist in producing in the Philippines selected generic drugs at the lowest possible cost.
“We have agreed to produce those generic drugs most needed by the disadvantaged members of our society,” Romulo said.
Following are excerpts from the Interphil information material:
Q. What products are covered in the agreement and under what brand names will they be sold?
A. The agreement covers various medicines for various therapeutic areas ranging from anti-hypertension, anti-diabetes and anti-infectives. The products will be marketed under PITC Pharma’s brandnames.
Q. Will this lower the prices of other drugs?
A. Our goal is to ensure that the disadvantaged members of our society have access to the drugs that they need to support efforts to deliver quality and affordable healthcare to everyone in the Philippines.
Q. At what prices will these products be sold?
A. PITC Pharma will determine the selling price of these products but we assure the public the public that Interphil will exert enough support to ensure that PITC Pharma will be able to meet their target of lowering the prices by 50 per cent.
Q. Where can the public buy these products?
A. The products will be available at the Botika ng Bayan and other outlets as determined by PITC.
Q. Who will distribute the drugs?
A. We are in discussion with PITC to make available the Zuellig Group’s state-of-the art distribution operations to ensure that these drugs are available throughout the country.
Q. When will these products be available?
A. We will do everything possible to bring these drugs to market as soon as possible after we receive orders from PITC.
Q. Are these products safe? How does the quality compare with other branded medicines?
A. These products will be manufactured in the state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities of Interphil. These facilities have been proven to be in compliance with good manufacturing practices and have passed the high quality standards of Interphil’s multinational clients. These products produced by Interphil are at par in terms of quality with the products of the multinational companies.
some good news at last ?
Thailand has gone one step further. their military-backed government broke the patent on expensive life-saving HIV drugs to make them affordable.
AN OPEN LETTER TO EU COMMISSION
RP killings ‘more complex’ than extra judicial tag — EU 12/05/2006
http://newsinfo.inq7.net/breakingnews/nation/view_article.php?article_id=36493
It appears that the EU Commission needs to properly investigate the case studies on these murder cases. The seemingly neverending extra-judicial killings, agents of the government had perpertrated with impunity. The murders are political through & through as any professional murder investigator would tell you.
Don’t treat the Filipino citizen as stupid, because stupid they are not!
collator.peedee@yahoo.co.uk
Even us here is promoting the manufacture and sale of Generic Drugs at a fraction of the Cost. Usually all drugs that patents had expired are now only available in Generic brands and cost are negligible and taxpayers funded, lots of saving for the government health treasury and extended health care insurance companies. And pharmacist are encouraged to dispense Generic equivalents of some Branded Drugs unless specifically “no subtitutions is noted by Physicians” by generous rebates to them by Manufacturers.
Quality is assured to be equal to original formulation by strict quality control, and the pain of civil liability which could bankkrupt a largest drug manufaturer with one faulty drug in a Class Action Suit.
The latest news in the drug “wars” is that Pfizer is taking half the price off its famed anti-hypertension drug Norvasc. From the usual P44.75 it is down to P22.40! No, its not goodwill nor any other kind of benevolence from this company that has been overcharging Pinoys for decades! The reason is that a competitor, Therapharma, is about to launch a 60% cheaper alternative for Norvasc called Amvasc.
While they themselves sell it for less than 5 pesos in other countries, the P44.75 is outrageously exploitively immorally grossly any-ly prohibitive to most Pinoys. Can’t we file class action anti-trust suits against these companies who use the patently defective Patent Law to abuse Filipinos? If something is wrong, no law can make it right.
Eyedrops for my glaucoma alone costs a fortune and they have it only in Mercury Drug. I therefore have no other option but to buy the branded kind as there is no generic counterpart. A 5ml bottle lasts for 15 days and it takes a chunk out of my monthly budget. I hope the agreement covers my medication.
Perhaps Vic of Canada could answer this: Canada’s drugs are cheaper than the US. In fact, the US buys from Canada. From time to time, Americans cross over to Canada just to buy cheaper drugs. Question: Why is it that within Canada drugs or medicine are similarly expensive? That’s what my Canadian friend says. Canadians pay more. To me, that doesn’t make sense…
Tongue,
The population doesn’t have to go to the trouble of filing a class action suit.
One EO could do wonders to drop prices. It’s been done in South Africa and even in other countries in Europe particularly when there’s an epidemic.
But Gloria has no moral will to do anything remotely worthwhile to alleviate the sufferings of a multitude of her compatriots. She’s incompetent, she’s immoral, she’s a liliputan sized political harlot with a gargantuan lust for her little nodescript self.
Noel, if you’re talking about prescription drugs, it is cheaper here than in the U.S. but over the counter drugs which is not covered by the drug plans or any extended plans covered by private insurance is unregulated price. And here is what I can’t understand of what you’re your friend was claiming. Medicines for senior is covered 100% by the Unviersal Drug Plans so is for those on Social Assitance programs and welfare and Minors. Doctors fees and hospital fees for Basic necessary medical care is also covered. Drugs for working adults, not on any social assitance are usually, almost 100% with family coverage with various deductibles from token $.35 cent per prescription to the maximum of 20% of total per prescription
depending on collective bargaining for unionized labor and goodwill of non-unionized companies. Once confine in Hospital, whatever the duration, is all 100 % covered by govt. program. so if you don’t want to pay anything on your medical bill, don’t buy over the counter, have them prescribe by your doctor> I did, even my daily dose of 8l mg aspirin, which is very good in preventing heart attack by thinning the blood and cheap for my extended health care insurance, considering that my total yearly bill on drugs alone is approx. 10 grand. So if your friend is paying the frug on her own, maybe she’s buying non-prescription drugs.
sorry for some mispelling. the approximate cost of yearly medication is arrived by computing the deductibles paid that are also entitled for tax credits. say iif I’m paying 10% for maintenance medication (excluding in cases of hospital confinement, where covered by the univrsal care)declaring the expense of $1000 for tax credit in year arrived at the total of Medication covered by extended insurance coverage of 10 thousands, which is not that extravagant considering the prizes of branded drugs, which some could go as much as $10 a shot. For most of prescription covered by the Government drug plan, pharmacists are encouraged to dispense Generic Equivalent of Equal quality to save the government on the budget. common sense, since half of our tax dollar goes to Medical care..
You should watch the movie, “The Constant Gardener.” It is about the racket being committed by some big pharmaceutical company. There is lesson to be learned from there.
I like that movie. Rachel Weisz and Ralph Fiennes were good. It’s ironic to see how people in an industry that is supposed to save lives could engage in murder just to make money.
Yes, it is a wonderful movie. I downloaded a copy and save it in a disk.
Over here in Japan, Ellen, medicines are dispensed of by designated pharmacist and the prices of drugs are carefully regulated by the government that definitely takes full responsibility.
In 1971, I got sick and was hospitalized for a long period of time in the hospital for side effects of some medicine that I took. Years after the Ministry of Health called me up and told me that I was entitled to some compensation due to some drugs that was administered to me and caused my hospitalization for a period of about 5 months.
Apparently, the people who were adversely affected by the medicine that caused a lot of them to lose their capacity to walk or see or their five senses sued the government and the pharmaceutical company for the drug administered to us (I didn’t even bother ask for the name of the drug and did not actively participate in the lawsuit although my name was included as a co-plaintiff), and they won.
I got 15M yen lumpsum and a monthly stipend of 176,800 yen (117yen/$ today) until I die that will not affect my pension as a matter of fact. I understand that even foreigners who were included in the lawsuit also got the same amount of compensation.
Count myself lucky for living in this country? You bet I do!
I wonder if they have done similar group lawsuit in the Philippines.
Oh yes, there is the lawsuit versus the InFatso by the 42 journalists. I pray for their success. It’s one reason in fact why the ChaCha should not push through because with a new charter dictated by the Bansot, no such lawsuit will see justice in the Philippines with a court fully controlled by the idiots squatting at the palace by the murky river.
Galit? You bet, I am!!! PATALSIKIN NA, NOW NA!
Well Vic, maybe the free prescribed drugs or medicines vary province to province. What my friend told me was that the doctor or hospital visit is free under the Canadian health care system; but not the drugs. He further informed me that he has seen senior citizens spending hundreds of dollars on medicines when they get to pick up their drugs. By the way, my friends lives in Manitoba.
If you are employed and are covered by supplemental health, yes you could enjoy more privileges and discount. But if you only rely on the government’s health benefits, drugs are not included including prescribed drugs. One option is to apply for the so called drug plan to obtain discount. They would look at your income if you qualify then grant you a certain period of time to pay only a very small portion of the price. They check on your income yearly to see if you can already afford. That’s what my friend told me who has lived in Canada for 12 years.
Guys,
Pfizer’s cholesterol drug Lipitor was withdrawn from the market a few days ago due to many deaths associated with it. Pfizer stopped production of Lipitor that caused the drug company to layoff a significant number of employees. It has also caused Pfizer stock to drop considerably.
I don’t know if you have there another name for Lipitor. For those taking it, please check. Baka ibinebenta pa riyan sa Pinas for frofit.
Chi,
correction, it was a drug for the replacement of Lipitor whose patent is expiring. It fails the test to meet the % of LDL reduction. So Pfizer has to start anew for another research and their stock tumbled down l2 % at dow jones. they’ll recover.
Yes noel, it is different from province to province, but I believe senior citizens are covered fully in all Canada, otherwise, seniors in manitoba could have long ago gone to the courts for unequal treatment. Maybe your friend was talking about a yearly one time pay of something around $100 plus to cover dispensing pay and other incidental expense. That is negligible since most senior requires a yearly medication of thousands and thousands of dollars and can be delivered free to their residence at their request (that’s part of that one time pay, user pay).
In ontario, everyone not covered by supplemental drug plan in their employment is covered by the Ontario Drug Plan, that include, social assitants recipients (working people, but not enough income to poverty level) welfare (non-working disabled, people who simply refused to work) senior citizens, and minors. trust me on this one, noel, I lived here for the last 32 years now…
Thanks for the correction Vic. Mahirap talaga itong nagba-blog same time listening to CNBC :). I bought some shares and now gaining.
Out of topic :).
Vic, on your own sweet time, could you please tell me something about RYERSON University, do you know anything about this U? Thanks.
Chi, I don’t know much about the current programmes at Ryerson. All I know is that it is located smack right at the center of downtown Toronto. Used to go there 3 decades ago, but lasted a good 3 months. Not meant to be succesful Canadian trained professional. Previously known as Ryerson Polytechnical, specializing in vocational and engineering courses, but lately, maybe about l5 years ago granted the status of a University. Now offering just about any degree. while your at it, go to University of Toronto site, always among the top universities, but Mcgill in Montreal (english) is Canada’s foremost university. for engineering and continuing studies, Ryerson is one good institution. i’m retiring soon. so I leave the studying to the young generation, and i’ll enjoy the Philippines, by that time, sans Gloria and her Legions. and hope for the better living retirement or else just sit down here and keep on shovelling the snow about half of the year. hehe
Vic
I appreciate the info. Mcgill was the first choice :).
I’m sure you’ll enjoy your retirement in Pinas. Glueria and minions will be ousted soon. Positive thinking, ay naku!
You wouldn’t want to shovel snow half of the year, you deserve better. hehe
Schumey,
Glaucoma drops are very expensive and the cheaper alternative is THC or tetrahydrocannabinol – the potent ingredient found in marijuana. I’ve known tourists flock to Sagada in the Mountain Province to find their “cure” abundant even in public markets. It’s difficult to transport the medication though. Marijuana works by softening and expanding the walls of blood vessels in the eyes thus increasing blood flow and lowering pressure in the eyes. That explains red eyes of dopeheads. Never, never use Viagra and vasoconstrictors like Visine ‘cuz it works oppositely. My mom had glaucoma on both eyes and later it was responsible for her blindness in one.
Its never too late to pick up a new addiction, heheh.
TonGuE-tWisTeD,
Marijuna, maybe considered ellicit drugs but it has a lot of benefits that is now a legally prescribed medication here for a lot of illness. Painkiller as one and many more as determined by your friendly personal practitioners. it is still illegal to grow them up for trafficking though, but a plant or two for personal consumption is not much of a problem..