Marcos orders FDA to further streamline drug approval process

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. orders the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to simplify its drug approval process further as he expressed his wish for medicines to become more accessible to Filipinos, following a sectoral meeting with FDA officials in Malacañang on Tuesday, February 13, 2024. (INQUIRER STOCK IMAGE)

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday directed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to simplify its drug approval process further.

Following a sectoral meeting with FDA officials in Malacañang, the President said he wanted medical drugs to be more accessible to Filipinos.

“The President has directed the Food and Drug Administration to further streamline the drug application process in the Philippines and to provide further drug accessibility for all the Filipinos, and in the future, the cheaper medicine for us, to be accessible also to the Filipino people,” FDA Director General Samuel Zacate said in a press briefing.

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The FDA official said they are already working on several policy changes to help increase access to medicines.

“We tackled in the sectoral meeting the possibility or the establishment of the pharma-zones,” said Zacate.

The FDA said pharma-zones established in Philippine Economic Zone Authority-controlled areas will serve as places where the agency can immediately test and register medicines as they enter the country.

Zacate also said the FDA will lengthen the validity of current medicines from a five-year renewal period to 10 years.

“We are doing the revision of fees for us to be capacitated so that our laboratory and testing abilities will be further and be at par with the other international regulations,” he said.