MANILA, Philippines?President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will finally sign next week the executive order placing a price ceiling on 22 essential drugs sold in the country.

Malacañang made the announcement Tuesday amid allegations that Pfizer Phil. had tried to bribe the President with some P100 million worth of discount cards for distribution to indigent patients around the country.

Sen. Manuel Roxas claimed that representatives of multinational pharmaceutical companies had met with Ms Arroyo last July 8 in a bid to block the signing of the executive order implementing a maximum retail price (MRP) system for drugs as required under the Cheaper Medicines Act of 2008.

?There is no truth (to the allegation) that [the President] negotiated or conspired with the manufacturing companies,? said deputy presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo.

Fajardo said that during the July 8 meeting, the President had simply made herself available to those who wished to reach out to her and explain why they felt their industry might be affected.?

22 essential drugs

She said Ms Arroyo told the drug companies to decrease the prices of 22 essential medicines within 10 days.

She said the Department of Trade and Industry was ?ready to revoke the license of drug firms? if they failed to meet Ms Arroyo?s deadline for them to cut their prices.

The Department of Health (DoH) said it will not settle for anything less than a 50 percent voluntary price reduction on essential medicines.

?It should be 50 percent or more, that?s clear,? said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, who expects to get the list of medicines and the corresponding price cuts from the drug companies by July 18.

To be acceptable, Duque said the drug companies? proposal should cover essential medicines for hypertension, diabetes, cancer, stroke, asthma and infection which account for six of the 10 leading causes of death in the country.

The voluntary price cuts would take effect ?as soon as possible? once the DoH accepts the drug companies? proposal.

But if the DoH is not satisfied with the drug companies? voluntary price reduction, Duque said they will revert back to imposing maximum retail price (MRP).

?There?s nothing wrong with voluntary price reduction. But if we see that it?s just a token offer, then the law has to be enforced,? he said.

The DoH last month formally recommended to the President imposing a 50 percent price cut on 21 essential medicines, invoking a provision of the Cheaper Medicines Law.

The law, which took effect in November 2008, seeks to bring down medicine prices by introducing competition through the ?parallel importation? of cheaper-priced medicines.

No competition

Duque said the market competition did not happen, so the DOH invoked the law?s provision on imposing a price ceiling.

Meanwhile, Iloilo Vice Gov. Rolex Suplico blamed Roxas for the weakness of the Cheaper Medicines Law.

Suplico, a former congressman, said it was Roxas who moved to delete a provision of the bill that would have created a Drug Price Regulatory Board to make sure the price of medicine was fair and affordable.

?He was the one who had that removed and then power was given to the President. That is why the law is weak,? Suplico said.

He said the board would have been able to lower the price of medicines since its members included representatives from the DoH, the DTI, the Bureau of Food and Drugs, nurses, and doctors. With Philip C. Tubeza