Majority of Pinoys use generic medicines, says Health chief

About 50 percent to 60 percent of Filipinos use generic drugs and more people now prefer less expensive but quality medicines, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Friday. “Five to six of 10 Filipinos are indeed using generic medicines now. This emerging generation of wise consumers is surely increasing and it has caused the reduction of many medicine prices already,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd said.

The Health chief said that “generic medicines have been our unsung heroes in the fight against costly, expensive, abusively-priced medicines” because the competition they brought against their high-priced innovator counterparts has not only lowered the latter’s prices but also improved the quality of drugs through the years.

Duque urged medical personnel to help promote the use of generics to the public.
“If more and more doctors prescribe generic medicines and more and more people use generic medicines, these offer more competition to further force medicine prices to go down,” he said.

Duque explained that while there is already a law that will impose ceiling prices for medicines to make them more accessible, generic medicines still give much affordable prices.
According to the results of a study commissioned by the DOH and the Department of Trade and Industry, generic medicines can be up to 80 percent cheaper than their innovator counterparts.

Meanwhile, the Health department also on Friday opened the first Philippine Generics Expo in Megatrade
Hall 1 in SM Mega Mall to highlight quality generic medicine companies and their products that people can buy during the expo, which will run until today.

The Generics Expo is also being held in line with the celebration of the Generics Awareness Month this September. The celebration carries the theme “We Love Generics: Join our Generation!”

“We love generics because they have always been in the forefront of our fight against expensive
healthcare,” said Duque. He added that the Health department has signed an agreement with the Cancer Warriors Foundation to invest P20 million for the purchase of generic anti-cancer medications that are earmarked to benefit children with leukemia.

“Many children with cancer die every day because they cannot afford their medication. Hopefully, we see the heroism of generics through the lives of these children we save,” the Health secretary said. –Rommel C. Lontayao, Reporter, Manila Times