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<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 2/24/09, <b class="gmail_sendername">chd mancom</b> <<a href="mailto:chdmancom@yahoo.com">chdmancom@yahoo.com</a>> wrote:</span>
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<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"><b><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Feb 20, 2009</span></b></p>
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<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><b><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Consumers’ group on cheaper meds formed</span></b></p>
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<p><span>A newly formed consumers’ group called every Filipino to unite and assert for the people’s right on access to safe, affordable, quality, and effective medicines.</span></p>
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<p><span>Consumers’ Action for Empowerment (Consumers’ Action) today stressed the need to continue the people’s struggle of more than twenty years for a democratic access to essential medicines.<span> </span>In a statement, Dr. Eleanor A. Jara, member of Consumers’ Action Secretariat and executive director of Council for Health and Development said that since the 1970s, the issue of unaffordable medicines has burdened and claimed people’s lives <i>en masse</i>.<span> </span>NGOs and people’s organizations took an active role in educating communities to lobbying in Congress.<span> </span>Health workers, professionals, community leaders, and ordinary citizens rallied and took their advocacies to the streets.<span> </span>Dr. Jara added access to safe and affordable essential medicines became a rallying cry to all the ailing <i>Juan,</i> <i>Maria </i>and<i> Juanita</i>.</span></p>
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<p><span>“Since those times, the health conditions of the Philippines have changed – for the worse.<span> </span>Eight or nine out of ten Filipinos have not been able to buy medicines and the World Health Organization classified the Philippines as among countries where less than 30% of the population have regular access to essential drugs,” stated Dr. Jara.</span></p>
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<p><span>The group believes that it is high time for the creation of a consumers’ group participated by community leaders, people’s organizations, hospital workers, advocates, religious institutions, teachers, women’s groups, and consumers in light of the passage of Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008 or RA 9502.<span> </span>Hence, the formation of Consumers’ Action for Empowerment.</span></p>
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<p><span>Dr. Jara pointed that Consumers’ Action can make a difference by educating, organizing, and mobilizing the people to act on timely consumer concerns such as unaffordable medicine.<span> </span>Consumers’ Action shall act as a watchdog of consumers on accessibility of safe and essential medicines.<span> </span>Other activities include drug price monitoring on a nationwide scale and networking with other concerned groups and individuals.</span></p>
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<p><span>RA 9502 was signed into a law on June 6, 2008 and promised more affordable medicines for the public.<span> </span>But Dr. Jara is not very optimistic.<span> </span>She said that RA 9502 is doomed to fail because of the inherent flaws in its provision.</span></p>
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<p><span>“<b>First,</b> the law failed to dismantle foreign control over the drug industry which is one of the reasons why millions are unable to buy life-saving essential meds because of exorbitant prices.<span> </span>Multinational companies dictate high prices through the World Trade Organization – Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (WTO-TRIPS).<span> </span><b>Second,</b> there is no true local drug industry in the Philippines.<span> </span>Local manufacturers can only produce 200 kinds of essential medicines despite the fact that 80% of the more than 17,000 registered drugs are already off-patent.<span> </span>Instead of developing the local drug industry, the government encourages parallel importation which promotes the policy of dependence and which can eventually kill the local drug manufacturers.<span> </span><b>Third,</b> despite clamor and strong recommendation of the health sector representatives and people’s organizations, the law omitted the creation of a Drug Price Regulatory Board which could have ensured the democratic representation of consumers and other stakeholders.<span> </span><b>Fourth,</b> ‘strengthening’ BFAD by leaving it to generate its own income with the goal of cutting it off from the national budget is tantamount to government reneging on its obligation and makes BFAD more vulnerable to private interests and influences,” Dr. Jara added.</span></p>
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<p><span>“The issue of access to essential medicine is just a mere slice of the cake.<span> </span>Access to essential medicine is part of a people’s inherent right to health.<span> </span>The need of Filipinos for efficacious and affordable medicines can only be met when a strong national health care system is in place and under a government whose policies are for the best interest of its people,” Dr. Jara concluded.</span></p>
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