Why Medicines Are Expensive in the Philippines

Inquirer: Last updated 01:17am (Mla time) 07/06/2006

Published on Page A12 of the July 6, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

WE ALL complain why medicines cost so much here. That’s because we follow the American way of marketing drug products -- through promotion and advertisement. Just visit a doctor in a hospital and take note how many medical or drug representatives visit him every day and how many samples of medicines, catalogues and promotional items and incentives they offer him.

All these "reps," judging from the way they dress, definitely earn decent incomes from the pharmaceutical companies they represent, and their incomes and standard of living have to be supported by the companies. To recover these overheads, the pharmaceutical companies simply tuck the costs in the prices of medicines. But all this is nothing compared to the incentives they offer doctors to promote their products.

Would you believe they offer doctors all-expenses-paid trips to places in Asia, Europe, Africa or the United States -- and with their families yet? Somebody has to pay for all these expenses and unfortunately it is the consumer. And we wonder why medicines are expensive here!

These practices are very common in the United States but unheard of in India and Pakistan where medicine prices, like cosmetics and food products, have to be labeled with an MRP (maximum retail price), determined by the government.

If we could implement this practice, we could surely bring down the prices of our medicines here. But then again, we need a trusted government body to determine what the right price should be.