A price cap will be imposed on more than 100 drugs and medicines to improve public access to healthcare based on a new order of President Duterte.
Under Executive Order No. 104, the President sought to regulate the retail and wholesale prices of selected drugs and medicines used for hypertension, diabetes, pulmonary disease, and cancer, among others, recognizing that these contribute to the “huge out-of-pocket expenditure” of Filipinos.
“This landmark measure would impose price regulation through a Maximum Retail Price, Maximum Wholesale Price or both on certain drugs and medicines,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said yesterday.
In the President’s latest order, the government has imposed MRP and MWP on select drugs and medicines “totaling to 86 drug molecules or 133 drug formulas.” A list of the medicines and corresponding MRP and MWP was placed in the annex of EO 104.
The order also covers drugs related to some immunosuppressants, analgesics, anti-asthmatic and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease preparation, anti-coagulants, anti-agina, agents affecting bone metabolism, antiemetic, anti-depressants, iron chelating agent, antiviral, fibrinolytic, mucolytic, and other drugs for treatment of psoriasis, seborrhea, and icthyosis.
The drugs covered by EO 104 are chosen based on the criteria that they address the health priorities of the public, especially those that account for the leading causes of morbidity and mortality; have high price differentials compared to international costs; have limited competition in terms of lack of generic counterparts or lack of market aces; and most expensive yet most prescribed innovator products.
The President also ordered a creation of a technical working group to review, in consultation with stakeholders, the prices of the remaining 36 drug molecules or 72 drug formulas previously proposed for price cap. The group will be composed of representatives of the Department of Health and Department of Trade Industry.
“The government acknowledges that expensive healthcare, including costly medicines, pushes a significant number of Filipinos to poverty, discourages them from seeking the appropriate medical treatment, leads to drug and medicine resistance, as well as endangers lives, thereby increasing the morbidity and mortality rates across the different socio-economic classes,” Duterte said in the order.
“There is a need to revisit and update existing policies to improve access to healthcare, including the affordability and accessibility of drugs and medicines, and formulate both short-term and long-term measures that are sensitive to stakeholders,” it added.
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