The Department of Health in Western Visayas is asking all doctors of government hospitals to prescribe generic medicines to give patients the freedom to choose their preferred drug, Delia Tarrosa, chief, licensing regulation and enforcement division of DOH-Center for Health Development, said yesterday.

Tarrosa was in Bacolod City for the DOH-CHD programs and information campaign.

Putting the generic name or the scientific name in the prescriptions will also offer more competition to drug manufacturing companies and will later force the prices of medicine down, she said.

Private doctors can recommend brand names, but they must place the generic names as well, as this is specified in Republic Act 9502, or the Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008, Tarrosa added.

It is a wrong notion that branded medicines are more potent thus they are expensive, she said.

“It is not true because the active ingredients of the medicines are all the same. It is the ingredients that cure the disease,” she said.

The law also provides sanctions for medical professionals, pharmacies, and manufacturing companies caught violating the provisions, she added.

Tarossa said DOH is currently conducting random inspections in all government and private doctors, drugstores, and manufacturing companies and if caught, administrative sanctions may be imposed on them like suspension or cancellation of license to operate or to practice their profession by the Professional Regulations Commission. *LTG

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