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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Media Release </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Health </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Alliance</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> for Democracy (HEAD), </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Philippines</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">. </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">Email: <a href="mailto:headphil@gmail.com">headphil@gmail.com</a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">25 March 2008</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12.5pt"><font face="Times New Roman">"Generics-only provision playing into the hands of big pharmas" - HEAD </font></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">The contentious "generics-only prescribing" provision of the Cheaper Medicine Bill plays right into the hands of big pharmaceutical companies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">The group Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD) warned that this provision serves only to distract legislators and stakeholders, divert attention from the flaws that need to be addressed, and prevent a thorough discussion of the more salient features of the bill.</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">According to Dr. Gene Alzona Nisperos, HEAD secretary-general, "While generics-only prescribing is an ideal that all health activists aspire for, it is not the decisive issue at this juncture. Unfortunately, the obstinate insistence on this provision is being exploited by big pharmas and their cohorts so that the more important features of the bill will be glossed over." </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Central features of the bill that need meticulous deliberations include provisions on the national drug policy, parallel importation, compulsory licensing, and drug price regulation. HEAD believes that these are the vital issues that big pharmas have undermined in the bill, and that legislators are being pushed into a position of compromising an exhaustive scrutiny of the bill in order to expedite its passage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">HEAD, the 3,000-member national organization of doctors and allied health professionals, is calling on legislators to "keep their eye on the ball", to focus on the problem rather than be lured by provisions that will not effectively mitigate the stranglehold of big transnational companies (TNCs) on the drug industry.</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">"Big pharmaceuticals are not worried about the generics-only prescribing at this point as this will neither directly nor immediately impact on their profiteering." according to Dr. Nisperos. "They may even exploit this to further their influence on the prescribing habits of doctors." <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">"But big pharmaceuticals are deadly afraid of mechanisms that threaten to alter the status quo, especially provisions providing for stronger regulation and fostering increased competition. Enforcing regulation, such as drug price regulation, promoting competition that leads to the development of a self-reliant national drug industry, and implementing a comprehensive National Drug Policy that is linked with the entire Philippine health care delivery system - these are the steps that will dismantle existing monopolies. And these are the steps that big pharmas want to stop."</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Hence, the language and formulation of the bill on these provisions will require careful and repeated examination to prevent flaws or "riders" that will render them powerless. Parts that have been "consolidated" by the congressional bicameral committee should be made available to all stakeholders so that these can be examined further.</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Among the things that HEAD is pushing for is drug price regulation that will immediately reduce the prices of a broad range of essential, life-saving, and maintenance drugs. HEAD also wants the drug price regulatory board to be independent, with multi-stakeholder representation, and with direct accountability to an oversight committee of Congress. </font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Media Release</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">01 April 2008</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12.5pt"><font face="Times New Roman">"Who's Afraid of Drug Price Regulation?" - HEAD </font></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Who is afraid of drug price regulation? </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Certainly not the patients, who stand to gain much if prices of much-needed medicine are immediately reduced to low, very inexpensive prices. Definitely not the doctors, who will finally see their patients able to comply and adhere to their medical treatment. And absolutely not the general public, who may yet enjoy a better life when even the most essential and life-saving drugs become affordable. </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Who, then, is afraid of drug price regulation? The big pharmaceutical companies and their proxy representatives, who continue to raise the specter of "abuse", "over-regulation", "regulatory capture", and other "complex problems" supposedly posed by price controls.</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Health </span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Alliance</span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"> for Democracy (HEAD) today reiterated its calls for a strong drug price control and a greater regulation of the entire drug industry in the country. The 3,000-strong national organization of doctors and allied health professionals is one of very few stakeholders strongly pushing for regulation, even as the Bicameral Committee of Congress continues to hammer out the Cheaper Medicine Bill. </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">"Given the highly monopolized character of the industry, no genuine competition will prosper and thrive. It is the inherent nature of monopolies to suppress, to stunt competition, as can be seen from our experience with the Generics Law. This makes regulation at this juncture both a moral and political imperative." said Dr. Gene Alzona Nisperos, HEAD secretary-general. </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Because of the stifling stranglehold of big pharmas, the number of local Filipino drug manufacturers has been greatly reduced, from around 300 in the 1980s to only 27 today, 8 of which are up for sale. Many of these companies are manufacturing only specific drug lines and cannot yet provide genuine competition to big trans-national corporations (TNCs) or provide a backbone to a strong generics industry here. </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">More than 70% of total drug sales are accounted for by pharmaceutical TNCs, earning some 58.5 billion pesos for the top 10 drug TNCs (excluding United Laboratories) in 2006. By <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">July 2006, the pharmaceutical market grew by 7.4% in value but declined by 3% in volume, reflecting growth that is mainly driven by price.</span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">"All talk about the so-called market forces coming into play is deceptive. These so-called market forces have been around in the last 20 years and have not affected any real change, which is why we are still faced with exorbitantly priced medicine." </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Added Dr. Nisperos, "The industry players, the big pharmaceuticals, have shown that they are unwilling to regulate themselves. Instead, they push their weight around without fear of reproach or reprimand, as what a big pharmaceutical did when it filed a court case against the Philippine International Trading Center (PITC)."</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">HEAD believes that the current <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">status quo</i> is unacceptable, especially when government line agencies like the Department of Health and the Bureau of Food and Drugs remain incapable of controlling the unscrupulous profiteering by big pharmaceutical companies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">"Filipino patients are dying or being maimed <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">en masse</i> because they cannot afford the medicine they need. If we truly have the interest of the Filipino patient at heart, then regulation is a requisite, not an option, to making medicine affordable in this country." concluded Dr. Nisperos, "Anything less is a return to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">status quo</i> and an absolute betrayal of this interest." </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></p>