MANILA, Philippines?The House of Representatives will suspend ratification of the cheaper medicines bill, Speaker Prospero Nograles said Sunday.

Nograles made the announcement after proponents of the measure in the House said the bill had been ?drastically weakened? with the removal in the bicameral conference committee of the provision creating a drug price regulation agency.

Nograles said he was ?very disappointed? by the latest snag in the bill, which he had hoped would be ?a gift to Filipino workers on Labor Day [May 1].?

?I don?t think we can make it on Labor Day,? Nograles said.

?(I would) rather accept a delayed law rather than a patently flawed one,? he added about the much-awaited measure aimed at bringing down the high cost of medicine.

The bicameral report provides that instead of a regulatory board, the President upon recommendation of the Department of Health could regulate drug prices.

Iloilo Representatives Ferjenel Biron and Janette Garin, authors of the House version of the bill, said the Senate had earlier promised to support the provision on a price regulatory board.

Palawan Rep. Antonio Alvarez, chair of the House committee on trade and head of the House contingent to the bicam committee, confirmed the provision on a price regulatory body had been removed.

However, the mechanism for cost regulation remained, he said, only that the bill now provided the President would be involved in the process.

Nograles said he remained committed to enactment of the cheaper medicines bill but he was also determined to ensure it would actually result in lower drug prices.

Not serve its purpose

?If we cannot get this assurance, I think it would be best to defer its ratification because I don?t see the point of passing a law that would not serve its purpose. It would only raise false hopes among the people,? he said.

The bill, up against intense lobbying by the pharmaceutical and medical sectors, has been languishing since the 11th Congress.

The House contingent to the bicameral panel had given in to calls to drop the ?generics only? provision in its version of the bill to get the bicameral process moving after months of deliberations, Nograles pointed out.

He said that because of the latest wrinkle, the House may insist once more on the ?generics only? provision, which mandates doctors to write down the generic names of the drugs they prescribe instead of the brand names.

Non-branded medicines are generally cheaper than branded ones.

Present laws mandate doctors to write down both the generic and brand names of the medicine they prescribe.

Nograles said he intended to confer with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Senate President Manuel Villar on the latest snag when they meet in Cebu on Monday for the signing of the University of the Philippines in Cebu?s new charter.

He said he would also meet with the House members in the bicameral committee this week.

?If I?m fully assured there?s no difference if we have a board to regulate the price of medicine or if we delegate this authority to the health secretary and the President, then I don?t see any reason to delay its ratification,? Nograles said.