STA. CRUZ, Laguna -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed here on Friday a new law that aims to bring down the price of medicines by encouraging more competition in the local market through parallel importation of cheaper but quality drugs.

Republic Act 9502, or the "Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008," also seeks to help the local generics industry by amending the Intellectual Property Code and strengthening the regulatory powers of the Bureau of Food and Drugs against substandard medicine.

"We all know about the importance of the Generics Law before but it was incomplete, and now with the cheaper medicines and quality bill we have completed, I believe, our legislative reforms in bringing affordable medicines to the people," Arroyo said in a brief message after signing the new law

She directed the Department of Health (DoH) to come up with the implementing rules and regulations within 120 days.

The agency, for its part, said the new law would allow it to expand a program to deliver cheap medicines to the grassroots.

"With the signing of this Act, the DoH is put into high gear to further accelerate efforts to expand Botika ng Barangay [Drugstore of the Villages] outlets with the goal of 15,000 outlets nationwide by 2010," Health Secretary Francisco Duque said in a statement.

Although listed as a priority measure by the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC), the cheaper medicines bill was bypassed by the 13th Congress due to lack of time and quorum.

Congress finally ratified it in April this year.

But the measure's passage came after months of intense debates amid alleged efforts by pharmaceutical firms to delay, water down, or archive the bill.

For it to get the nod of the lawmakers, especially members of the House of Representatives, Arroyo also agreed to remove a "generics only" provision that would have required physicians to only prescribe the generic names of drugs.

Arroyo said the measure was part of government efforts to make medicines affordable to the people, especially the poor already burdened by high prices of oil, electricity, and food.

In an interview after the signing, the law?s principal author, Senator Manuel Roxas II, said the measure will remove all roadblocks towards parallel importation of medicines.

He also said safeguards are in place to prevent the proliferation of fake drugs.

The other senators present at the signing were Pia Cayetano and Ramon Revilla Jr. Several congressmen also showed up for the ceremony.

With the new law, any individual or organization registered with the Bureau of Food and Drugs may import medicines and sell them cheap to the public.

Other salient features of the new law include:

? Prohibition of the grant of new patents based only on newly-discovered uses of a known drug substance;

? Allowing local generics firms to test, produce and register their generic versions of patented drugs, so these can be sold right upon patent expiry ("early working principle");

? Allowing the government use of patented drugs when the public interest is at stake;

? Giving the President the power to put price ceilings on various drugs, upon the recommendation of the Secretary of Health. These drugs include those for chronic illnesses, for prevention of diseases, and those on the Philippine National Drug Formulary (PNDF) Essential Drug List;

? Strengthening the Bureau of Food and Drug Administration so that it could ensure the safety of medicines, by allowing it to retain its revenues for upgrading of its facilities, equipment and human resources; and

? Ensuring the availability of affordable medicines by requiring drug outlets to carry a variety of brands for each drug, including those sourced from "parallel importation," to give the consumer more choices.