Doctors oppose generics rule in cheap medicines bill

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:55:00 01/17/2008

MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippine Medical Association (PMA) feels so strongly about deleting a provision in the Cheaper Medicines bill which seeks to limit doctors to prescribing only generic names of drugs to patients that it has threatened a walkout if the provision is retained.

PMA spokesperson and past president Dr. Bu Castro said in an interview that doctor-members were considering a walkout from their jobs if Congress passed the bill without deleting the provision.

“We are hoping the lawmakers who support this bill will remove this provision,” said Castro.

Castro said that the PMA supported the enactment of the Cheaper Medicines bill, but added that the provision mandating doctors to prescribe only generic names of drugs had no connection to drug pricing. “We were wondering why it was placed there,” he said.

Castro said incorporation of the provision could spell risks for patients who would consequently rely on their limited knowledge or those of drug salespersons when choosing the proper medicine brand under a generic category.

He said that experience had shown that different brands under one generic category were capable of causing different effects, delayed effects, or allergic reactions to different patients. Beverly T. Natividad