Bicam breakthrough on medicine bill reported

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Manuel Roxas, chairman of the Senate committee on trade, has announced after a four-hour meeting that the bicameral conference committee on the Quality Affordable Medicine Bill had reached a breakthrough in discussions, resulting in roughly 90 percent of the bill already agreed upon.

Roxas said the representatives of the House and Senate have also arrived at a consensus on drug price regulation and had consolidated conflicting versions of the law.

He said the only remaining provision for the bicameral committee to thresh out was on amendments to the Generics Law that would only allow generic names of drugs – and not any brand name – to be written on the prescription.

While the House members wanted a “generics only” provision that would prohibit doctors from writing brand names in prescriptions, Roxas noted that senators expressed concern this may merely shift the selection of brands from the doctor to the drugstore.

Roxas said the lawmakers were looking for mechanisms to bridge the two positions. “What’s important here is for the patient to have free choice on the medicine,” Roxas said.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said the bicam has to discuss this issue further.

“From our point of view in the Senate, we want to find ways to reconcile the generics-only provision. We want that this will be studied in our committee hearings extensively,” he said.

The House is proposing the generics-only provision where the doctor will just prescribe generic medicine and not branded drugs, while the Senate wants to retain the old provision.

The present Generics Law requires a doctor to put the generic name as well as branded medicine in his prescription.   – Christina Mendez