Dr. KRISANA KRAISINTU, Champion of Scientific Crusade for Affordable Medicines in Thailand, Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for 2009, is coming to Manila late this month.
On August 28, Friday morning, Dr. Kraisintu will have an intimate dialogue with leaders of CHAT member-NGOs regarding affordable medicines. Dr. Kraisintu has produced in Thailand generics of HIV retrovirals, even using her own money to bring cheap medicines to the poor.
I will attend her talk. Her initiatives in Thailand are good. Those who have the expertise and capacity to produce more competing products made by multinationals should join the competition. More competition is always good for consumers and patients.
I would even add that local pharmas should aspire to become multinationals themselves someday. Like San Miguel, Jollibee, Figaro, SM, Chowking, etc., previously companies that were just confined to the Philippines, now having plenty of branches abroad.
Thus, I wish that Unilab, Pascual Lab, other Filipino pharma companies will become multinationals someday and start exporting their products to Asia, even in Europe and the US. They don't have to compete with existing multis in all or most products and molecules, just a few products and focus on it in terms of R&D and marketing.
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