The issue is drug affordability

Big Pharma had been trying to mislead the public by saying the issue is fake drugs. But the real issue is sky high drug prices that keep vital prescription drugs out of reach by most of our people. But just to show how powerful the Big Pharma lobby is, they had the nerve to try to manage proceedings in the House to prevent early passage of the bill that would finally put the people’s interest above that of Big Pharma.

This is not to say that fake drugs are not a problem. But as Rep. Teddy Locsin Jr. explained over ANC, Big Pharma has twisted "fake" to mean anything that does not come out of the local bodega of the multinational drug firm. For example, Norvasc, an antihypertensive drug made by Parke Davis for Pfizer in Pakistan is genuine in Pakistan but if PITC imports the same product for sale in our Botika sa Barangay, it becomes fake.

This column has pointed out for many years that Big Pharma companies had been discriminating against the Philippines with their outrageous prices here compared our neighbors. Big Pharma thinks it is simply their prerogative to screw us because we do not have a drug price control mechanism in place.

Just to show that the Roxas bill is in line with the Doha Round and TRIPS Agreement, Director-General Pascal Lamy of the World Trade Organization reacted positively when Sen. Mar Roxas briefed him on the ongoing efforts to bring down the costs of medicines here through amendments to the Intellectual Property Code. Lamy noted the passage of a bill using parallel importation and other amendments to the Intellectual Property Code merely highlights the country’s ability to respond to social needs.

The World Health Organization also commended the Senate’s passage of the bill. In his letter to Sen. Mar Roxas, Dr. Jean-Marc Olive, WHO Representative wrote: "We would like to congratulate you for your outstanding leadership and steadfastness in the passage of the Access to Medicines Bill. This work is the first and most significant step not only towards improving the access to medicines to millions of Filipinos, but also in improving the health outcomes in our communities as well." A WHO report says less than 30 percent of all Filipinos could afford to buy badly needed medicines regularly.

Hopefully, Congress can find time to finally pass the bill when it resumes session after the May elections. Failure to do so would mean a big victory for Big Pharma since the bill will have to go to square one all over again.

Indian drug firms

Big Pharma has painted an all together bad picture of Indian pharmaceutical firms, mostly claiming that the Indians produce the "fake" drugs they are warning us about. The Indian pharmaceutical industry is now of world class standards even as it had been the last resort of developing countries for affordable medicines.

Because they are in a country of over a billion people where the risk of disease is ever-present, Indian pharmaceutical firms simply had to develop the ability to deliver cheap generic medicines. Based on their early success, the Indian pharma company is now evolving to the next level. Today, top Indian pharma companies are emerging as research based international corporations supplying generic and branded drugs to North America and Europe, the world’s two largest pharmaceutical markets.

In fact, they have been recently acquiring a string of medium scale pharma companies in the US and Europe. The top dozen Indian pharma corporations already have either manufacturing or marketing establishments in these developed markets. Indian pharmaceutical entrepreneurs have definitely matured in just 20 years.

India is now exporting about a third of its pharmaceutical production and they are looking at bringing this up to more than 50 percent soon. Ranbaxy, the largest Indian pharmaceutical company, exported more than 70 percent of its total sales. Dr. Reddy’s and Cipla are the two other major exporters.

With over $50 billion worth of drugs coming off patent in the US in the next few years, expect the Indians to gain a good chunk of the generic business. This is also what the Roxas bill is preparing our country to take advantage of.

Now already the back room of world business through call centers and business process outsourcing, India is emerging as the world’s drug manufacturer of choice. It is easy to see why. They start with a key advantage — their costs are low.

Morgan Stanley’s India chief economist Chetan Ahya points out the costs in India for scientists, doctors and laboratory analysts are about one-fifth to one-eighth of those in the United States. India is also making a name for itself as a good place for clinical trials.

Indian pharmaceuticals now have 75 plants approved to make drugs for the American market — the most of any nation except the United States itself. At this point, India’s great strength is still generic drugs. But India’s leading companies are now taking the unprecedented step of investing hundreds of millions of dollars into research and design to invent entirely new drugs... the first Indian blockbuster drug.

An Indian pharma industry website claims "India has overtaken Germany and China so much so that the country now has R&D capacity second only to the US, at one-fifth of the cost — cost savings can be as much as 85 percent on R&D conducted in the West..."

The website also points out "with the world’s fourth largest reservoir of scientific manpower and 150,000 MSc Chemistry graduates per year, India is also filling a hole being left in the EU and US, where graduates are abandoning science for more lucrative careers in business. Indian graduates also offer multinational companies the advantage of speaking English and the productivity benefits they can offer are continually being recognized."

"Producing counterfeit drugs is also a concern," the website concedes, "although India does not feature in the top five countries that are responsible for producing fake drugs, even though, according to commentators, the US does."

Thousands of lives in Africa are now being saved by Indian-made drugs. Major humanitarian foundations, including those of Bill Clinton and Bill Gates, have been working with Indian pharmaceutical firms to produce vitally needed drugs to save millions of suffering people in the developing world. It makes no sense to shut them out of the Philippine market just because Western Big Pharma says so. That’s one more colonial shackle we have to break, the sooner the better.

Corruption trial

At the height of a political corruption trial, the prosecuting attorney attacked a witness. "Isn’t it true," he bellowed, "that you accepted five thousand dollars to compromise this case?"

The witness stared out the window, as though he hadn’t heard the question.

"Isn’t it true that you accepted five thousand dollars to compromise this case?" the lawyer repeated loudly.

The witness still did not respond.

Finally, the judge leaned over and said, "Sir, please answer the question."

"Oh," the startled witness said, "I thought he was talking to you."

Boo Chanco ‘s e-mail address is [email protected]