DOH cool to pharma’s offer to cut price of meds

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III appears cool to the proposal of a group of pharmaceutical firms to cut down drug prices on their own, saying there was no guarantee the public would fully benefit from it.

“The offer is full of good intentions. But whether those intentions will translate into actual benefits to our people is something that is not clear,” Duque said.

The health official said the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP) had admitted that it did not have any control over the mark-up on medicine imposed by pharmacies.

“They may be willing to cut down their prices but they admitted during our meeting that they cannot control how the retailers will structure their pricing,” Duque said.

After the Department of Health (DOH) announced that it would update the list of medicines subjected to the maximum drug retail price, as provided under the Cheaper Medicines Act, PHAP said its members would substantially lower the prices of medicines on their own.

The DOH is looking at lowering the current price of 120 medicines for diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes and cancer, by as much as 56 percent.

But Duque said it was up to President Duterte when the executive order on this would come out. /atm