House Speaker Prospero Nograles yesterday said the House of Representatives may defer the ratification of the bicameral conference committee report on the proposed Cheaper Medicines Act, until he is personally satisfied that the law will guarantee cheaper cost of medicines, a press release from his office said.

Nograles made the statement as he announced that his meeting with the members of the House contingent to the bicameral conference on the Cheaper Medicines bill will have to wait until tomorrow or Wednesday, because he has to be in Cebu today to witness the signing of the new charter for the University of the Philippines.

He, however, said that he would like to take the opportunity in Cebu to confer with President Gloria Arroyo and Senate President Manuel Villar and get their sense on the controversies related to the proposed Cheaper Medicines Act, the press release said.

“We have to carefully balance the things that are at stake in this proposed Cheaper Medicines Law. For one, we have to get the full assurance that if this is passed into law, it will really bring down the cost of medicines,” Nograles said.

“If we cannot get this assurance, I think that it will be best to defer its ratification because I don't see the point of passing a law that will not really serve its purpose,” he said in the same press release.

Nograles said the two clashing school of thoughts in relation to the removal of the regulatory body that would enforce the law both have their strong and weak points, but at the end of the day, the only overriding concern that will influence his position is whether or not the reconciled bicameral report will actually result in cheaper medicines, the press release said.

He said that while he is committed to see the enactment of the Cheaper Medicines Act before Labor Day or May 1, he is also determined to make sure that it actually bring down the cost of medicines and would “rather accept a delayed law rather than a patently flawed law.”

“We don't want to give false hopes to our people that the Cheaper Medicines Law will bring down the cost of medicines. If there is enough basis that the bicam report has been watered down and has been rendered inutile, I will endorse that we defer its ratification and take the discussions back to the bicam with the possibility that we may reassert our position on the generics only provision,” Nograles added in the press release from his office.*

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