House Speaker Prospero Nograles yesterday said he will keep an eye on the implementation of the Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicine Act of 2008.

Nograles also said he wants to make sure that it will really bring down the cost of medicines once it is signed into law by President Arroyo, a press release from his office said.

Nograles said the House decision to accede to the Senate version of the cheaper medicines measure, and agree to remove the “generics only” and the “regulatory board” provisions in the House version, was aimed at avoiding a protracted stalemate.

“Somebody had to give way and allow our version to be completely displaced by the Senate version. Otherwise, we will never have a Cheaper Medicines Law,” he said.

Nograles said the House decision to give way to the full version of the Senate was made upon the assurance of the Senate proponents led by Senators Mar Roxas and Pia Cayetano that the cheaper medicines measure will still bring down the cost of medicines even with the removal of the provisions requiring physicians to prescribe only generic medicines and the establishment of a drug price regulatory board, the press release said.

“The House was very insistent on the generics only provision contained in our version because we feel that once the law takes effect, the cost of medicines will immediately go down,” he said.

He added that some concerns that the “generics only” provision in the House version will only flood the country with inferior generic medicines are inaccurate, because the Bureau of Food and Drugs is mandated to exercise quality control on all imported and locally manufactured drugs before they are allowed to be released in the market “with or without the cheaper medicines law,” the press release added.*

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