The Senate passed the Senate Bill 1658, or the Quality Affordable Medicines Act of 2007, Senator Manuel Roxas II said in a press statement yesterday.

Roxas said he commends his colleagues for their immediate action to pass the bill on third and final reading.

Now we await the House of Representatives to pass their version, so we can immediately convene a bicameral conference committee hearing, Roxas, the bill's primary author, said.

Senate Bill 1658 is intended to ease patent laws and bring in more affordable medicines from abroad, helping spur competition to bring down prices, he said.

An example is Daonil, the common maintenance drug for diabetes taken twice a day, at P9.86 for every 5-mg tablet. In India , the same tablet can be bought at roughly P.80.

Diamicron, another anti-diabetes drug, is available locally at P11 locally for a 30-mg tablet, but costs only P5 in Pakistan and P7.57 in India .

Among Senate Bills 1658's main provisions are the proposed amendments to the Intellectual Property Code which seek to allow the parallel importation of more affordable medicines from abroad; support to generics industry by adopting the “early working” principle and to disallow the grant of new patents on grounds of “new use;” and give ample muscle to the government through a framework for government use and compulsory licensing.

It also recommends the strengthening the Bureau of Food and Drugs to serve as a counterfoil to attempts to bring in fake or substandard medicines by allowing BFAD to retain its operating income from fees and other charges so it could upgrade its facilities and beef up its human resources.*

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