Saying it’s never too late to correct his mistake, authors of the Cheaper Medicines Act in the House of Representatives have urged Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas to support the proposal to amend the law and reinstate its “automatic price regulation” provision.

Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin and former Iloilo congressman now Vice Gov. Rolex Suplico said Roxas should realize that such provision is the key in bringing down the exorbitant prices of medicines in the country and not his latest proposal to exempt the importation of drugs and medical equipment from the 12-percent value-added tax (VAT) and other duties

They noted that it was Roxas who vehemently opposed the automatic price regulation, which is the “heart and soul” of the House version because it could have reduced the prices of more or less 1,600 medicines by at least 50 percent.

Garin, a physician by profession, said Roxas’ latest proposition is still no match to their suggestion to create a Drug Price Regulatory Board to regulate the prices of medicines.

“The 12 percent is nothing compared to the more than 50 percent reduction in prices of medicines if we adopt the original version we filed,” Garin said.

She added: “It’s not yet late. Pwede pang mahabol. We just need the political will and commitment of those opposing our version of the law so that efforts will not be useless if indeed we start amending the law.”

Suplico said this is probably the time that Roxas correct his mistake. “Mar should just go with the move to amend the Cheaper Medicines Act to include mandatory price regulation to be implemented by a Drug Price Regulatory Board,” he said.

The Department of Finance (DoF) had earlier shot down Roxas’ proposal under Senate Bill (SB) 3128, citing an estimated annual revenue loss of P5.57 billion. SB 3128 seeks to exempt the sale and importation of drugs, medicines, pharmaceutical products and related raw materials, and medical, dental, and hospital equipment and instruments from VAT and tariff and import duties.

According to the National Tax Research Center (NTRC), Roxas’ proposal would not be a surefire formula to lower the prices of medicines and other pharmaceutical products.

The DoF think tank warned that the government stands to lose P792.53 million in duties and taxes and another P4.778 billion from VAT slapped on imported pharmaceutical products and equipment brought in yearly.

The NTRC said that from VAT on drugs and medicines alone, the revenue loss would be P2.883 billion annually while the VAT take from the pharmaceutical industry is valued at P1.894 billion for a total VAT loss of P4.77 billion.

It also said the P103.58-billion local pharmaceutical industry is already subjected to existing laws aimed at lowering the prices of drugs and othe/r pharmaceutical products such as Republic Act (RA) or the Generics Act of 1998, RA 9257 or the senior citizens discount of 20 percent on prices of drugs and the RA 9502 or the Cheaper Medicines Act of 2008.

As this developed, Health Secretary Francsico Duque III announced on Friday the approval of the 50 percent reduction in the 16 most expensive drugs in the market, he assured that retail outlets who fail to comply with the requirements of the Maximum Drug Retail Price (MDRP) will be faced with stiff penalties ranging from fines to the revocation of their business licenses.

In a press conference held at the DoH headquarters in Manila, Duque said that the country’s leading pharmaceutical firms have agreed to apply voluntary price reduction to 16 drug molecules or 41 drug preparations, along with 22 additional molecules in 31 products that were not part of the MDRP to be implemented by August 15, 2009 for bigger establishments and September 15, 2009 for smaller retailers.

“We are very pleased with the very fast and encouraging response of the industry to the appeal of the government to voluntarily reduce their drug process by 50%. In fact, we got more than what we bargained fro because apart from the original list we proposed, other drug companies offered voluntary price cuts in some of their leading products,” Duque said. (With a report from Angie Chui)