Sell medicines directly to users - Gotcha

"Don't they know how to count?" government economists snickered when Makati industrialists forecast a flat 3.5-percent growth for 2000. "How can 3.5 percent be flat?"

Those government apologists must reread their schoolbooks. They jump for joy like chimpanzees at the three-percent economic growth that the Estrada administration reported in 1999. Yet neighbor-countries with practically the same products as RP -- electronics, garments, rice and coconut, overseas workers, sun-sea-and-sands tourism -- notched twice higher growth figures. Like RP, they soaked in the Asian crisis. But RP was slow on the uptake due to confused priorities and directions, and cronyism.

Besides, 3.5 percent is flat in an RP system where the majority has to wait for the trickle-down effect to enjoy the fruits of their economic labors. Three percent is more than big in North American and West European economies where wealth is equitably distributed.

Two reasons have always been given for the high cost of medicines. Health officials say that pharmaceutical firms splurge on shotgun promos to the public and to doctors. Drug makers say it's because they spend good money on research and development.

Both sides have figures to back up their claims. Close to the third of the price of a tablet covers the glossy product kits, the paraphernalia, gifts, and launching hoopla. Another third goes to testing the drug on lab mice and human guinea pigs.

If both sides are correct in their calculations, they could be wrong in their approaches to marketing and R&D. Requiring doctors to prescribe generics alone won't work. Perhaps a better approach would be to sell straight to patients, from among whom drug makers can also get volunteers for future experiments.

This would require organizing patients, as health workers already are doing. Doctors can help, say, diabetics form a national organization. The patients can categorize themselves by age and gender, then draw up a list of drugs they would need for, say, the next two years. Drug makers can look at the list, then manufacture or order from abroad only the inventory needed. No excess stocks, no additional storage cost, no more marketing spillage of prescription or ethical drugs.

The same can be done with, say, glaucoma patients or persons verified to be at risk of heart attack.

Multilevel marketing cooperatives may be given vitamins, cough and cold medicines, infant formula milk at wholesale prices, so they can resell to members at subsidized rates. This can drive down the cost of over-the-counter items.

The idea is to change traditional -- and costly -- marketing methods, the way e-commerce is already changing retail trade through direct orders to manufacturers' computer centers.

INTERACTION. Nestor Meniola: "I'm a Manileño disgusted with Mayor Atienza's admin. Just go around the city, you'll see it's going to the dogs."

Nestor, why does he let bus firms turn main roads into garages?

Benjie Pastor, hotmail.com: "I'm a physician at a big QC hospital, where we take care of 600-700 patients each day. I must admit, paranoia can't be overemphasized in this line of work because we deal with precious lives. Being in charge of 75 million lives can be paranoiac, too. So I can't blame Erap for atras-abante decisions. That's why whoever runs for office should have competence."

Do you have a pill for this national headache, Doc Benjie?

Joey Legarda, Makati: "His latest survey rating is a way of recovering lost ground from the last election that was a best-slogan contest. Erap won on mere popularity; 18 months later, he's being judged on performance."

Rodel Ocampo, hotmail.com: "Everytime Erap is called to task for his follies and foibles, his aides invoke the wide vote margin he enjoyed in '98. What now, with a mere +5 net approval rating? He lost the numbers in just 18 months because of his cronies' stinking deals."

What will the numbers be after 54 more months, Rodel, Joey?

Ed Saguil, Toms River, NJ: "I mailed 35 Christmas cards late October to friends in RP cities via air mail. All were delivered late in December with signs of tampering, some stamped `received in damaged condition.' "

Ed, Mr. Postman says at least they were delivered.

Thank you, Cecille Forte, Julia Trampe, Lyn Perlas, Wilfredo G. Villanueva, Bong Zuniga, Popoy Los Baños.

Leni de Jesus is again giving Joseph Estrada bum advice as his staff chief. She claims that while the Boss has fired "calling card advisers," he is not obliged to divulge who he has retained. Her reason: "They're supposed to report only to the President and the President alone. They shouldn't be dealing with the public government officials. They shouldn't report to anyone else or interfere in the bureaucracy."

Her definition of the advisers' jobs, limits and "reportability" may be right. But De Jesus is wrong about "accountability." Her father, a former Ombudsman, might have to read to her what the Constitution states on the matter (Art. XI, Sec. 1): "Public office is a public trust. Public officers must at all times be accountable to the people..."

Presidential advisers are public officers by virtue of the peso-a-year or P30,000-a-month pay they draw from the public coffers. Since the title of presidential adviser can be abused, the public must be told who the real consultants are, and who are mere "calling card advisers." That way, no one can come barging into a public office asking for this or that contract in the name of advising the President.

Spokesman Jerry Barican, De Jesus's ally in the factious Palace, is also evasive, saying only that they have a list of the retained advisers but not offering a copy to the press. He and De Jesus have acquired a siege mentality that typically afflicts factotums in times of crisis -- in this case, rotten ratings.

George E. Reedy, studying the US Presidency under fire, laments such mentality. It fosters an insidious belief that the President and self-proclaimed trusted aides are possessed of a special knowledge that must be closely held within their small group, lest their designs be anticipated by "enemies." It clouds presidential advisers' judgments, and make them act like doting mothers to a spoiled brat -- a President who rattles, prattles and begins to throw tantrums during crisis. It makes advisers assent to bad presidential decisions, and prone to giving bum advice.

And that's what De Jesus is now doing to Estrada.

HER BODY. A test for human papilloma virus that doesn't require a pelvic exam may soon rival the Pap smear as an accurate screening for cancer and precancerous conditions, researchers report in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Two studies claim, however, that the new test produced far more false positives than the Pap smear, causing many more women to need further testing.

HIS BODY. Europe has a lower conception rate in winter than in other seasons. Reduced fertility used to be blamed on heavy, restricting male underwear -- until they found out that in North America, where it gets just as cold and men wrap up just as snugly, the conception rate is at its highest in winter.

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