Alleviating healthcare cost

Rico M., a 45-year-old entrepreneur, has a relatively profitable business which affords him the basic comforts in life. But since he was diagnosed to have diabetes and elevated cholesterol problems, he didn’t realize that his monthly cost of medicines can dig deep into his budget that would make him forego his regular round of golf and entertainment with friends.

With the economic crisis, the poor and rich alike are feeling the crunch of increasing healthcare cost. The meager income of an average wage earner does not leave enough room for medical expenditure, especially if the medicines are for chronic illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol problems, tuberculosis and asthma, all of which require long-term treatment.

The increase in the medical expenses puts added pressure to an already strained budget. Even those who can afford are asking their doctors for effective but affordable brands.

The need for an affordable yet bioequivalent drugs is the underlying principle of pharmacoeconomics. Bioequivalence means that different brands containing the same active ingredient produce essentially the same biological availability of the active substance in the body when given in the same quantity.

Thus, according to the principles of drug bioequivalence, products demonstrated to be bioequivalent are at par with each other and can be regarded and prescribed as an alternative to each other.

Patients from all over the country who benefited from a reasonably priced cholesterol-lowering therapy wrote letters of gratitude and commendation to Therapharma, a division of Unilab, which introduced an affordable brand of simvastatin a year ago.

Therapharma’s simvastatin, which has been shown to be bioequivalent with the standard brand, was priced half or less compared to other brands of statins.

A series of scientific meetings and celebrations dubbed by Therapharma as the first-year V-day of the affordable simvastatin was held all over the country to pay tribute to the doctors who overwhelmingly supported Therapharma’s product, as well as the company’s Health Plus Value Program which is in line with Unilab’s mission of making medicines more affordable to the Filipino family.

The success of this program indicated that Filipino physicians and patients are now conscious about pharmacoeconomics, which aims to promote drugs which cost less but are effective in treating the patient’s medical problems and improving the quality and longevity of their lives.

Medical observers also note that a major indicator of the impact of Unilab’s pharmacoeconomics campaign is that giant multinational companies have rolled back their prices and new product introductions, particularly in the cholesterol-lowering class of drugs, are now more reasonable.

"We should give credit to Unilab’s courageous effort to make the multinational giants follow their trail in bringing down the cost of essential medicines," a heart specialist said.

This is definitely a big cause for celebration, especially for many Filipinos who have not been able to sustain their medication because of the prohibitive prices of most medicines, especially those which are needed for the long-term treatment of chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol problems and lung diseases.

Making healthcare affordable is thus one of the most important factors that need to be addressed to give assurance that cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the country, can be prevented.

This is the objective of Unilab and all of its divisions. By providing pharmacoeconomic drugs, Unilab’s and its divisions’ executives are optimistic that they can change the paradigm or practices of determining healthcare cost.

"We have not only prevented unnecessary price increases in the statin market but I believe we have contributed to the realization of the impossible, and that is for other companies to reduce prices of their drugs," said James Dio, Therapharma general manager, in a speech during their statin’s first birthday celebration.

The price rollback was the first time the medical industry has experienced in years. Patients are definitely the one at the winning end with the 57-percent reduction implemented by a multinational company and the upcoming rollbacks that can be expected from other drug companies as they try to match the prices of pharmacoeconomic drugs.