DEMAND AND SUPPLY By Boo Chanco
The Philippine Star Nov. 29, 2006
First of all, Pfizer is not exactly being truthful in its public claim that a Norvasc user can get it at a 50-percent discount. I just got my week’s supply and it is the same atrocious price. Some years ago I got a discount card which I quickly discounted because it was for a dosage double what my cardiologist prescribed.
If Pfizer is sincere in making Norvasc affordable, it should just make a straight cut in the price and skip the need for a discount card. As it happens now, some get it but most patients don’t. Yet, Pfizer is able to make a claim that it has lowered the price of Norvasc by 50 percent. Sheer propaganda!
Also, the Norvasc a friend of mine who visited Pakistan gave me at a price very much lower than the price here is also being marketed there by Pfizer and manufactured by Parke Davis for them. When Pfizer says unauthorized sources, it only means it did not pass the subsidiary here. More important, I was told, our BFD determined it to be the same.
As I asked in previous columns, how come Pfizer can sell the same medicine at a lower price in neighboring countries? The only explanation I can think of is the higher transfer price to Pfizer’s Philippine subsidiary because we don’t have price controls and they can jack up the price here. This is not free market. This is monopoly pricing.
Anyway, pending the passage of legislation that would protect Filipinos from the atrocious pricing policies of drug companies, Ate Glue has unleashed not just one but two nationwide programs to make affordable drugs available to the masses. I had written previously about the Botica ng Bayan program of Obet Pagda-nganan. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there is another program, Botika ng Barangay that is being promoted by Agriculture Undersecretary Berna Romulo Puyat. Berna’s Botika requires a lower capitalization than Obet’s Botika.
Ms. Romulo-Puyat, one of the daughters of Foreign Affairs Secretary Bert Romulo, explained to me that she became a strong advocate of affordable drugs for the masses even before she entered government service. She got a first hand view of the health problems of common folks when she was running for Congress in the First District of Quezon City. She lost by just 1,500 votes, but that is another story. What she learned during the campaign is priceless.
When Berna became one of the presidential assistants at Malacañang, she decided to do something about this problem. She got involved in promoting the Botika ng Barangay program, getting grassroots organizations to set up these Botikas with the Department of Health. Berna has helped set up 180 of these Botikas and not just in her district. Another 60 of these are opening in Caloocan this month. The Botikas Berna and Obet are important because you cannot buy affordable drugs at Mercury Drug.
Last May, she even conducted a SEARCH FOR THE MODEL BOTIKA NG BARANGAY in Quezon City. The first prize was P25 thousand worth of medicines, 2nd-P15 thousand, 3rd-P10 thousand, 4rth-P6 thousand and 5th-P4 thousand. The contest indirectly helps her monitor the botikas she had set up. She is now planning to expand the SEARCH for the entire Metro Manila.
The way it works, according to Berna, involves grassroots participation as well as LGU sponsorship. Those who want to set up a Botika in their barangay must undergo a seminar and have a place for the outlet in an area whose residents are poor, indigent, or belong to a cultural minority. There must also be a lack of existing functional community drugstore or the community drugstore is geographically inaccessible.
Once approved, the outlet is given P25,000 worth of medicines, mostly over the counter drugs and seven common prescription drugs from antibiotics to drugs that treat hypertension, asthma and diabetes. The drugs come from the DOH and/or PITC. From then on, the BnB sustains itself from the sale of the drugs and the business is normally profitable. The most successful botikas are those located in a palengke, beside a church, and in a depressed area. "Those run by the senior citizens group also do very well because they are the most masipag!" Berna observed.
Berna told me that for example, Barangay Bagong Silang in Caloocan (population of 750,000) earns on a good day about P1,500 to P2,000. It even went up to P3,000 one time. Normally, a botika can earn about P10 thousand to P15 thousand a month. The Botika in Sangandaan located beside a church earns about P14,000/month. A Kamuning botika owned by the senior citizens group earns about P19 thousand/month. "All the botikas that we have set up are doing well," Ms. Romulo-Puyat says.
The principal attraction is, of course, the low prices. But, Berna emphasizes, "prices are low not because government subsidizes but because that is the REAL cost. I don’t believe any project will be sustainable if it relies continuously on government subsidies."
Those who are interested can contact USec Romulo-Puyat at the Department of Agriculture or they can go to PMU-50 located at DOH Central Office (Bldg. I Pharma 50 PMU, Office of the Secretary, San Lazaro Compound, Sta. Cruz, Manila) or to their corresponding Center for Health Development (CHD) Office to signify their intentions.
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