Recently, United Laboratories, Inc. (Unilab), currently the biggest Filipino-owned pharmaceutical firm in the country and the leader in its sector, announced that its division Therapharma has launched the anti-hypertension treatment Amvasc which costs 60 percent less than the erstwhile only locally available treatment. It was a score for government.

Early this year, the Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC) intensified its crusade for lower drug costs. PITC president Roberto Pagdanganan criticized certain multinational pharmaceutical companies for allegedly blocking PITC’s importation of an important drug in a bid to sell it at cheaper prices in the country. The row was fueled by a suit filed against PITC and the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) for patent infringement in line with the drug importation program.

Pagdanganan said the suit posed a serious stumbling block to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s plan to reduce the cost of vital medicines by 50 percent within the soonest possible time. The drug which spurred the row costs some P74.57 per 10 milligram tablet, and P44.75 for the 5 milligram version.

Pagdanganan had hoped to make the treatment available locally at current price levels in India where the very same drug is being sold at a fraction of the Philippine price tags.

In a recent press briefing, Pagdanganan said the government welcomes the introduction by Unilab’s Therapharma division of Amvasc, a vital anti-hypertension treatment in the market which will be sold at 60 percent less than the price of the erstwhile only locally available anti-hypertension medicine.

Amvasc could significantly reduce the amount needed to treat the country’s hypertensive population. To be sold at P17.50 per 5-milligram tablet, the minimum annual requirement to treat the country’s estimated 7.76 hypertensives will only cost P135.8 million a day or P4.96 billion annually. Compared to the P12.6 billion that the erstwhile only locally available drug would require, the introduction of Unilab’s Amvasc easily translates into some P7.7 billion in savings.

Cabral said the introduction of Amvasc "is a welcome development since its selling price of P17.50 per 5-milligram tablet is definitely within patient reach."

We hope the introduction of Amvasc would raise patient compliance and improve treatment outcome of cardio-vascular ailments in the country, she said.

Pagdanganan and Cabral said they hope that that "the rest of the pharmaceutical sector would put in more efforts at developing lower-priced medicines with the same potency and efficacy as existing products."