Group vows to counter lobby vs cheap medicine bill

The Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD) vowed yesterday to counter the lobbying of pharmaceutical companies against legislation that will reduce the prices of medicines in the country.

HEAD secretary general Dr. Gene Nisperos said they intend to “muster popular support and public opinion against the strong lobby posed by big players in the pharmaceutical industry.”

“We will rally physicians, patients, health professionals, consumers, and ordinary people to band together and battle the intense lobbying of big pharmaceutical companies, which will do everything to maintain their status quo,” he said.

HEAD is a 3,000-strong organization of doctors, health workers and health students.

Nisperos claimed the prices of medicines in the Philippines are highest primarily because of the influence of big drug companies.

“At bar is the unscrupulous profiteering by big business at the expense of Filipino lives. Our collective strength as stakeholders in this issue will be necessary to offset corporate greed,” he added.

Nisperos likened their battle for cheaper medicines to their fight to have the Generics Law passed decades ago.

“Similar battle lines were drawn almost 20 years ago in the fight to pass the Generics Law, which was also intended to provide low cost and safe medicines. Their war chest might be bigger now (referring to the alleged P1-billion lobby fund of the pharmaceutical companies), but so is the determination of those who want to end their insatiable greed,” he said.

He claimed the Generics Law has “hardly made a dent” in the country’s pharmaceutical industry.

Nisperos added that HEAD is now coordinating with organizations like Kilosbayan Para sa Kalusugan and the People’s Health Movement-Philippines to pursue their goals.

Meanwhile, the president of the Chamber of Herbal Medicine Industries of the Philippines (CHIP) said yesterday the billion-peso lobby fund by multinational companies is not new and has been in place to stunt the growth of a generic and alternative medicine industry in the country.

Lito Abelarde, CHIP president, told the weekly Kapihan sa Sulo forum in Quezon City that the lobby fund of the multinational drug firms was effective in their attempt to delist ampalaya from the Department of Health (DOH) classification as medicinal plant and alternative medicine for diabetic patients.

“As far as our experience is concerned, we are certain that the lobby fund really exists,” Abelarde said.

He said the multinational companies’ active campaign to delist ampalaya displaced thousands of farmers dependent on herbal medicine production.

However, he said the move of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to restore ampalaya as a medicinal plant is proof that the government can overcome the strong lobby of multinationals.

The P1-billion lobby fund to kill the cheap medicine bill was exposed by Iloilo Rep. Fergenel Biron when he refiled House Bill 001 which seeks to impose price regulation on drugs and medicines in the Philippines and to amend certain provisions of Republic Act 8293, otherwise known as the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines.

Senate President Manuel Villar and other senators as co-authors filed a similar bill in the Senate.

President Arroyo, in her State of the Nation Address (SONA), has certified the cheap medicine bill as urgent.   – With Perseus Echeminada