In line with its crusade against expensive pharmaceutical drugs in the market, the Medicine Transparency Alliance (META)-Philippines conducted recently a multi-stakeholder workshop for Ethical Drug Promotions and Marketing in Makati City.

Roberto Pagdanganan, META-Philippines chairman, said the workshop was held at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM). The participants were gathered to help identify ways that would deter drug laboratories from imposing higher prices on the medicines.

Taking part in the workshop were multinational companies, health professionals, pharmaceutical groups, academe, consumer groups, regulatory agencies, ad agency and media practitioners.

META-Philippines is a non-government organization created to ensure that prices of medicines sold in drugstores all over the country are affordable for all Filipinos, especially indigent families.

Staying true to its advocacy, META-Philippines Thursday made a solemn commitment to make quality medicines available to all sectors of society.

This, as Pagdanganan, a former governor of Bulacan province, expressed his disappointment over what he called the “dismal” implementation of the Cheaper Medicines Law.

“Medicines should be for everyone whether you are rich or poor and not just for the privileged. But, as we call for impartiality in dictating the prices of regulated drugs, the government also has to ensure that appropriate medical services are available for every Filipino,” he said.

Pagdanganan stressed that the law was enacted to protect the public against the interests of multinational pharmaceutical companies that dictate the prices of medicines sold in drugstores.

He likewise noted that among the factors to consider in trimming down the rate of regulated drugs sold by the giant pharmaceutical firms is the high cost of product promotion or advertisement.

“What the country needs right now is a system that will encourage the consumers to buy the prescribed drugs at lesser expense,” Pagdanganan said.

He revealed that  pharmaceutical giants mislead doctors into believing that the price tag for a specific medicine is “acceptable” by sponsoring seminars and expensive media ads.