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Massive drug imports set next year — PITC

By Ayen Infante

05/17/2007

The government will be buying cheap essential drugs from India and Pakistan starting next year despite an unresolved patent battle against one of the world’s biggest drug maker.

State trading firm Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) said it has set the importation of the Pakistani-manufactured version of drug firm Norvasc once its patent ends in June next month. The patent of the drug is owned by multinational drug maker Pfizer Pharmaceutical Co.

“We will have to bring in cheaper Norvasc medicines, provided that Pfizer refuses to lower the prices of the drugs even after the patent expiration. We will have to import low-cost Norvasc because it is one of the most in demand medicines in the country,” Rivera added.

He said the government is resorting to importation to address the growing demand for affordable medicines in poor areas in the country.

The PITC, the agency tasked to do parallel drug importation, plans to import P700-million worth of medicines next year or P200 million more as compared to P500 million allotted for 2007.

PITC executive vice president Teddie Elson Rivera explained the government has to increase the budget by P200 million next year to cover more consumers who require low-cost medicines.

Part of the plan is to bring in more generic drugs that are highly in demand by consumers including drugs against diabetes, asthma, hypertension and tuberculosis.

“We will bring in essential drugs that are really needed by the consumers. We will import, so medicines will be more affordable,” Rivera said.

A bigger volume of the planned importation will be concentrated in purchasing drug against hypertension similar to Norvasc.

Rivera said the high demand for the Norvasc medicines in the Philippines is reflected in Pfizer’s estimate to earn about P1.5 million from its sale this year.

PITC’s parallel drug importation started in 2001 to address the growing demand for affordable medicines. Total domestic pharmaceutical industry now stands at P8 billion, based on PITC data.