CHEAP MEDS BILL: HOUSE AIMS 3-YEAR SUSPENSION OF 'GENERICS ONLY'
MANILA, APRIL 16, 2008 (STAR) By Jess Diaz - Instead of scrapping the “generics only” provision in the Cheaper Medicine Bill, lawmakers are instead proposing to suspend its for three years.The suspension is the compromise that the Senate-House conference committee on the drug bill had agreed to before President Arroyo appealed for the deletion of the controversial provision, Palawan Rep. Antonio Alvarez, House trade and commerce committee chairman, said yesterday.
“Before the presidential appeal, the House and the Senate had already moved toward a middle ground, since the Senate version did not carry that provision,” he said.
He added that it is the Senate that is working on “the language of the compromise, based on the agreed principle of delaying the implementation of the generics-only provision from one to three years after the law’s effectivity.”
Alvarez said there would also be “certain practical conditions” that would have to be met before the provision is enforced, including an effective information system that reports the quality, safety and efficacy of drugs.
“In short, there will be a sort of accession to that presidential request, only that a sunrise provision will serve as guide when the suspended provision will take effect based on reasonable triggers,” he explained.
By “sunrise provision,” he was referring to the agreed time frame of one year to three years from the time the law takes effect for the enforcement of the generics-only provision.
Alvarez, principal sponsor of the Cheaper Medicine Bill, said he would not just scrap the provision because “it was unanimously approved by the House.”
Under such provision, doctors are to prescribe only generic drugs and not branded medicines.
The Philippine Medical Association and the Philippine Hospital Association have strongly opposed the generics-only provision, claiming it would violate the “patients’ right of choice.”
Doctors and hospitals have threatened to declare a “holiday” and refuse to accept patients, except those needing emergency treatment, to force Congress to delete the provision.
A congressman-physician said it is not the patient’s right of choice that would be violated by the generics-only provision.
“It is the doctor’s right of choice,” said the congressman, who asked not to be identified.
He said his colleagues in the profession do not want to let go of their discretion to prescribe branded medicine, which are costlier than generics, “because of the perks they enjoy from drug companies, which include foreign travel.”
During the hearings on the Cheaper Medicine Bill, Alvarez said “in no instance was the need for the generics-only provision demolished or even doubted by the parade of experts that appeared before the committee.”
“Resource persons like former health secretary Alberto Romualdez were so passionate in defending it,” he said.
Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi
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