WE SHARE the observation of former Congressman, now Iloilo Vice Governor, Rolex Suplico that the Bicameral Conference Committee version of the cheap medicines bill, which he originally authored in the 11th Congress, is a sell-out to foreign drug companies.

The regulatory provisions in the original bill have been removed, leaving the pricing of medicines to wider competition with the new provisions encouraging the entry of more drug companies in the playing field.

It appears that the members of the BCC, composed of representatives from both the Senate and the House of Representatives, are convinced that with a more dynamic competition among the multinationals, prices of medicines will lower as a matter of course.

But, this is not just a simple case of competing to sell to buyers, where companies, in order to sell their products, may have to resort to selling at lower prices than their competitors.

The competition here is a tricky one. To sell their drugs to patients, the drug companies will be competing to get the doctors prescribe their products to the patients.

In other words, the drugs are not sold directly to the patients. Yes, it is the patients who will still buy them, but through the doctors who will prescribe the drugs.

Because of this, the drug companies will be competing to win as many doctors as they can and see to it that these doctors really prescribe their drugs.

And that means pleasing the doctors in whatever way they can, which would involve very expensive seminars, workshops and even pleasure trips abroad at drug company expense, and similar enticements to get the doctors on their side.

These costs of attracting the doctors to prescribe their drugs will, necessarily, be added to the operating costs of the drug companies. In effect, this will pull up the prices.

Generic drugs, on the other hand, can remain cheaper because their manufacturers need not entice any doctor to prescribe them, as they concentrate strictly on the quality of the drugs as their only selling point.

Lamentably, though, the BCC also removed the provision to prescribe only generic drugs. Because of this, doctors who have benefited from the multinationals will still have to prescribe the drugs of their benefactor companies. And, of course, these branded drugs will be much more expensive than the generics!

We wonder why some doctors are opposed to the provision of prescribing only the generics that gives the patients the option to choose from the various drugs for sale, including branded ones, which alone they can afford.

Indeed, why, when in spite this “generics only” provision, doctors can still tell their patients the drugs they prefer to be taken by their patients.

There is something more than meets the eye here. And it is not helping any of our patients who are poor. In other words, this BCC-okayed version is anti-poor.

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