Press Release
January 22, 2008

PRESS STATEMENT OF SENATOR MAR ROXAS ON THE STATUS OF THE AFFORDABLE MEDICINES BILL

"I remain optimistic that the bicameral conference committee would be able to consolidate the best features of the Senate and House versions.

"The two versions contain the following differences:

1. Title:

"The Senate version is known as the Quality, Affordable Medicines Act.

The House version is known as the Cheaper Medicines bill.

2. Price Control:

"In the Senate version, we subscribe to the idea of price regulation on medicines but only through the Office of the President and based on the recommendation of the Secretaries of Health and Trade. This is reflective of the current Price Act and ensures direct and clear accountability whenever the need for price control arises. Under the Senate version, the Secretaries of Health and Trade, being the ones most familiar with the health situation and the supply/demand of medicines, are given sufficient leeway to decide how consultations on drug price regulation should be institutionalized.

"This is quite different from the House version that seeks to establish a drug price regulatory board composed of representatives from different agencies and consumer groups that will have immense power to set the prices of medicines - higher or lower - based on their own analysis of the situation. Though the proposed bill is silent on voting procedures, it is assumed that decisions to impose price control will be made by majority vote of the members of the board.

3. Amendments to the Generics Act and Pharmacy Law:

"In the course of hearings on the cheaper medicines bill, several stakeholders have proposed amendments to both the Generics Act of 1988 and the Pharmacy Law. One such proposal was to amend Section 6 of the Generics Law by strictly requiring that doctors write only generic names of drugs in medical prescriptions.

"Considering that these proposals have a major impact in the professional practice of doctor and pharmacists, these comments have been referred for further discussions through technical working group meetings under the Senate Committee on Health and Demography. It is for this reason that amendments to the Generics Act are not found in the Senate version.

"Meetings of the bicameral conference committee will be set once Congress re-convenes on the 28th of January. Rep. Antonio Alvarez and I, as co-chairs of the bicameral committee, have agreed to make our deliberations as open and transparent as possible."

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