Paving way for cheaper drugs
In my credit card bills, my purchases can be classified into just two categories: supermarket and Mercury Drug.
Such is life in this country for many of us who do not belong to the privileged 30 percent of this country. Whatever money we earn goes to food and other basic needs and medicines.
That’s why I welcome the agreement signed by Interphil and the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) for the former to process essential generic pharmaceutical products using formulations and active ingredients provided by the latter.
Interphil, the Zuellig Group’s publicly traded contract pharmaceutical arm in the Philippines,Marc Jacobs Handbags, will manufacture some 20 off-patent drugs as part of President Arroyo’s commitment to cut the costs of selected drugs for the poor by some 50 percent.
Until I read the Interphil-PITC agreement, I thought Zuellig was a Swiss-based multinational company operating in the Philippines. A Google search informed me that the history of the Zuellig group can be traced to the 1900s when a Swiss, Eduard Zuellig, established a company in Manila. Today, the Zuellig group is one of the largest privately-owned companies in the world with a turnover of $5 billion. It’s one of the leading businesses in the Asia Pacific region and is into pharmaceuticals,replica prada, healthcare, agri-business,Cartier Handbags, and properties.
Roberto Romulo, former foreign secretary who is chairman of the Zuellig Group, holding company of Zuellig Pharma, said they are proud of the company’s long heritage in the Philippines and are pleased that they could respond positively to the government’s request to assist in producing in the Philippines selected generic drugs at the lowest possible cost.
“We have agreed to produce those generic drugs most needed by the disadvantaged members of our society,” Romulo said.
Following are excerpts from the Interphil information material:
Q. What products are covered in the agreement and under what brand names will they be sold?
A. The agreement covers various medicines for various therapeutic areas ranging from anti-hypertension, anti-diabetes and anti-infectives. The products will be marketed under PITC Pharma’s brandnames.
Q. Will this lower the prices of other drugs?
A. Our goal is to ensure that the disadvantaged members of our society have access to the drugs that they need to support efforts to deliver quality and affordable healthcare to everyone in the Philippines.
Q. At what prices will these products be sold?
A. PITC Pharma will determine the selling price of these products but we assure the public the public that Interphil will exert enough support to ensure that PITC Pharma will be able to meet their target of lowering the prices by 50 per cent.
Q. Where can the public buy these products?
A. The products will be available at the Botika ng Bayan and other outlets as determined by PITC.
Q. Who will distribute the drugs?
A. We are in discussion with PITC to make available the Zuellig Group’s state-of-the art distribution operations to ensure that these drugs are available throughout the country.
Q. When will these products be available?
A. We will do everything possible to bring these drugs to market as soon as possible after we receive orders from PITC.
Q. Are these products safe? How does the quality compare with other branded medicines?
A. These products will be manufactured in the state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities of Interphil. These facilities have been proven to be in compliance with good manufacturing practices and have passed the high quality standards of Interphil’s multinational clients. These products produced by Interphil are at par in terms of quality with the products of the multinational companies.
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