Philippine Consumer Group Slams Doctors for Spreading ‘Generic’ Myths

The consumer group, Cut the Cost, Cut the Pain Network (3CPNet) today accuses the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) of spreading myths about the questionable efficacy and safety of generic medicines further undermining the potential benefit of the bill seeking to provide the people with affordable and quality medicines.

“Their insistence to prescribe their preferred branded medicines instead of giving the patients the option to buy bio-equivalent but cheaper medicines is the main obstacle to the full implementation of the Generics Act of 1988. They are doing this again with their efforts to block the remedies that the new law seeks to address to give the patients full benefits and ensure their access to affordable and quality medicines,” said Edeliza P. Hernandez, Co-convenor, Cut the Cost, Cut the Pain Network (3CPNet).

Hernandez said the doctors’ fear of getting disempowered and their claims of intrusion in the doctor-patient relationship are unfounded. She asks the doctors to substantiate their claim that there are different responses among patients to medicines of the same generic name.

“Sadly, our doctors and physicians of the PMA who promised to protect us and uphold our very right to health seemed to be the militia for spreading this propaganda about the perceived quality generic problems with an oversimplified argument,” said Hernandez.

The consumer group pushed for the passage of the Cheaper Medicines Bill in the House of Representatives through the 13th and 14th Congress even as the bill suffered too many hitches before it was finally passed on third reading before the session ends last year.

Hernandez said the PMA is delaying the passage of the Cheaper Medicines Bill hitting the proliferation of counterfeit and substandard medicines which sounds very familiar as the big, foreign pharmaceutical companies have used the same argument before to try to stop the bill from being passed.

“No less than the World Health Organization (WHO) has been actively campaigning for the use of generic equivalent for medical treatment, even encouraging physicians to issue prescriptions using generic names only,” said Hernandez.

Hernandez said no one is above the universal right to health not even the doctors’ preferences for drug prescription. She urges the bicameral conference that will deliberate on the two versions of the House and Senate to uphold public health interests above the interest of the few.

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