Villar doubts cheap medicines bill will work

Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. has voiced misgivings at the effectiveness of a newly passed law that promises to bring down the price of medicine, in the process apparently taking a swing at a possible rival in the 2010 presidential election.

Villar said he believed that the measure which came out of the House of Representatives, which provided for a drug price regulatory board and required doctors to prescribe only generics, would have been more effective instead of the version of the Senate, whose principal author is Sen. Manuel Roxas II.

The final version of the law followed Roxas’ bill, dropping the provision that required doctors to prescribe only the generic names of medicine and, doing away with a price regulatory board, authorizes the President to impose ceilings on drug prices.

“For me any version is acceptable. I believe both versions would help lower the price of medicine. Only maybe the decrease in prices would be bigger under the House version,” Villar said.

“But prices will also go down under the approved version. What’s important is that the law has been approved,” he quickly added.

Villar and Roxas have made plain their intentions to contest the 2010 presidential elections, both taking the helm of their respective political parties (Nacionalista Party for Villar and Liberal Party for Roxas).

Congress on Tuesday ratified the final version of the law, officially called “Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008” and submitted it to Malacañang for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s signature.

Villar said the Senate was ready to amend the law as needed if it failed to deliver on its promise to make medicine more affordable.

“We wouldn’t know if it would be implemented properly. I believe prices will go down, we just don’t know by how much.

“But we are ready to revise the law if the decrease in prices is not enough. We can pass a new bill to further bring down prices,” Villar said.

The law seeks to bring down the price of medicine by encouraging more competition in the local pharmaceutical market through the parallel importation of quality but cheaper medicine from abroad.

It also seeks to help the local generics industry by amending the Intellectual Property Code and strengthen the regulatory powers of the Bureau of Food and Drugs against substandard medicine.