Pagdanganan optimistic about HB 6035

Manila Times – February 13, 2007

The Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC), headed by Secretary Roberto M. Pagda­nganan, thanked President Arroyo and Speaker Jose de Venecia for the holding of special session from February 19 to 20 to pass vital legislation.

Pagdanganan, who is the chairman of PITC, is urging Congress for the immediate passage of House Bill 6035, the proposed measure addressing the cost of medicines in the country.

HB 6035 was among the eight priority bills that Congress failed to act on due to lack of quorum. Pagdanganan said that the recent passage of Senate Bill 2263, which seeks to amend specific provisions of the Intellectual Property Code to make medicines more affordable, will mean nothing if its counterpart bill in the House of Representative is not approved.

House Bill 6035, according to Pagdanganan, will promote market competition in the pharmaceutical industry and the PITC can better serve the public by opening up more Botika ng Bayan outlets and provide the market alternative products.

“We support HB 6035 and we have been advocating reforms in our patent system for the benefit of the people, we should not deny our people, especially the poor, access to affordable and quality medicines,” Pagdanganan said.

HB 6035 is consistent with the trade-related agreement on intellectual property rights administered by the World Trade Organization, which the country acceded to in 1994. Under the agreement the Philippines is allowed certain flexibilities such as parallel importation, government use of inventions, early working provisions or the Bolar exception, among others. Developing nations and developed countries have already adopted most of these provisions.

The PITC is tasked to reduce the prices of medicines by one-half in year 2010. The cost of these medicines today is five to six times higher than those sold in other countries.

Under the program, the Botika ng Bayan serves as the outlet of pharmaceutical products sourced locally and abroad by the PITC.

PITC launched in December 2004 the Botika ng Bayan project to set up a nationwide network of privately owned and operated accredited pharmacies that sell low-priced drugs in competition with commercially priced medicines in the market. At lease 1,200 “Botika” drug outlets have since been opened to serve the public’s need for affordable medicines.

Pagdanganan cited industry data indicating that the local pharmaceutical market accounts for an average annual sales worth between P80 and P100 billion. About 88 percent of sales are generated through drugstores and only 12 percent are accounted for by hospital pharmacies. Branded medicine sales are 97 percent of the total, while generic brands only account for 3 percent.