Senator Pia Cayetano yesterday said the call of doctors for the deletion of a generics prescription only provision in the Cheaper Medicines Bill will be tackled by the Congressional Bicameral Committee.

Cayetano, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, pointed out at a press conference at the provincial Capitol in Bacolod City that the provision being opposed by the doctors prohibiting them from indicating the brand name of the medicine of their choice along with its generic name is not in the Senate version of the Cheaper Medicines Bill, but in the House version.

In the Senate deliberation as early as the 13 th congress the Cheaper Medicines Bill authored by Senator Mar Roxas basically focused on the intellectual property issue to allow the entry of cheaper medicines into the market, said Cayetano, who is on a two-day visit of Negros Occidental.

Cayetano said she has conducted consultations with doctors and their general consensus is that they have an obligation to prescribe what brand they think is best for their patients along with the generic name. So, to take that away would then be leaving it up to the patient and the salesgirl in the drug store to decide what brand of medicine they will take, she said.

“I would like to make it clear that I am very supportive of the Generics Act… but I am definitely mindful of the concern of the doctors,” she said.

Cayetano said she would like to keep the Senate version of the Cheaper Medicines Bill but it is their obligation to go into bicameral discussions to reconcile it with the House version.

Meanwhile, she said that, along with the Cheaper Medicines Bill is the need to strengthen the Bureau of Food and Drugs with manpower and resources to check on all generic medicine companies to ensure the quality of drugs in the country.

Cayetano also aired her support for a Negros Occidental provincial-government initiated health insurance program to improve health care for Negrenses.

She said health insurance for the poor and the middle class to ensure their getting quality health care is very important.

“Very few people can afford to be sick without making a dent on their paycheck,” she said.

On concerns of a global economic crash, Cayetano said “what is important for the Philippines is to try to be as self-sufficient as possible by producing enough food to sustain our people.”

“Unfortunately we have always been a very strong agricultural producing country but we never give enough support to our agriculture,” she said.

“I am not so happy about the fact that we seem to be very willing to enter into trade agreement with countries that support their farmers and agricultural producers when we can barely do the same for ours,” she said.

To a certain extent we have to be inward thinking to ensure that the basic needs of our people are met, which are food and health care, she said.

“We are the number one supplier of nurses and the number two provider of doctors in the world so we have the ability to also provide topnotch healthcare for our people,” she said.*CPG

back to top