A doctor friend on the Cheaper Medicine Law

The latest twist in the debates regarding the Cheaper Medicine Law is the provision that
requires physicians to prescribe generic names of drugs only. No brand names! In fact, it
becomes punishable to write the brand name! It is likely that someone will bring the
matter to the supreme court on its constitutionality, as the freedom of choice is curtailed.
Brand names are there for a purpose, the enterprise owning the brand guarantees the
authenticity of the product and are responsible for it. Everyone is for cheaper medicines,
but foisting a proviso to ban brand name prescribing will only serve to delay passage of
the measure. Pitting genuine generics against the branded originals will be enough to
bring prices down, although, sadly, there is no way of knowing which among the generics
is genuine until the public becomes the guinea pig of the market. There is no doubt the
Cheaper Medicine Bill will pass, but without safeguards as to the safety and efficacy of
generics introduced from unverifiable sources from all over the world, the public is put at
risk for unsafe and if not less efficacious drugs. Appealing as cheaper generics can be,
there will always be a segment of the population who will prefer the original even if the
generic version is proven to be equally efficacious and safe. The spirit of the cheaper
medicine bill is that access to cheaper medicines will redound to better compliance and
higher cure rates, less catastrophic illness for the public. This spirit of the bill should not
be lost in the politics of its passage thru the halls of legislature. The proviso banning
brand names undermines the doctor patient relationship as it relegates to the pharmacist
the decision as to which preparation to give the patient. This is deplorable.

I hope to make you all aware of this sinister insertion of a proviso in a piece of legislation
that will surely pass as law soon. We heard Congress will vote on the bill on Monday
afternoon. The Philppine College of Physicians is coming out with position paper to be
published in the major dailies. Please read it and we hope you join us in protesting the
proviso, not the bill per se but this unjust proviso (as well as the neglect of safety and
efficay issues in intorducing untested generics to the public).

Rogie Tangco MD