* My article in BusinessWorld, April 30, 2020.
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On April 24, President Rodrigo Duterte announced in his
address to the nation, “…the bright Filipinos who are there working day and
night trying to find out how to combat COVID, I’m raising the bounty to 50
million… Baka ‘pag sa ligaya ko, another 50 million… So kung kailangan nila ng
additional funding… kung hindi masyado malaki, I will readily give it to them.”
The good news about this statement is that the President
recognizes the importance of medicines and vaccines innovation and by
extension, government should reward, not harass innovators.
The bad news is that developing just one new successful
and effective vaccine will cost not just $1 million (P50 million) but around $1
billion or more. And upon the prodding of the Department of Health (DoH), he
signed Executive Order (EO) 104 on Feb. 17 that precisely harasses innovators
via drug price control.
There are two types of vaccines to deal with diseases:
1.) Preventive vaccines, help the body develop immunity to a disease by
imitating an infection and teach the immune system how to identify and target
viruses and bacteria without actually causing an infection; and, 2.)
Therapeutic vaccines which treat pathogens by provoking a targeted immune
response against an existing disease.
Vaccine development by innovator pharma and biotech
companies against COVID-19 was progressing fast. As of mid-March, more than 20
vaccines and antiviral medicines were being developed and undergoing nearly 80
clinical trials in various phases in various countries, data from the
International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (IFPMA)
showed.
By mid-April, there were already 70+ candidate vaccines
from many innovator companies worldwide. Other diseases were also getting new
candidate vaccines on top of existing ones, according to data from the
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) showed (see Table
1).
Humanity is being assured of better healthcare in the
future via new and evolving treatment and vaccines. But politics of envy
interfere in the distribution and sale of these new treatments. Recall how the
DoH was focused on drug price control (DPC) lobbying and defending mainland
Chinese travellers even when COVID-19 was already wreaking havoc in China and
other countries since January (see Table 2).
So when those successful vaccines and treatments vs
COVID-19 become available worldwide a few months from now, there is the danger
that the Philippines may not get them because of existing political dangers.
One, the old DPC under EO 821 (July 2009) issued by
former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo remains in place until now and was
never pulled out.
Two, IPR- and patent-confiscation provision via
compulsory licensing against newly invented, patented successful medicines and
vaccines may be issued under RA 9502 (Cheaper Medicines Act of 2008).
Three, with EO 104 is already waiting for them, price
controls at the manufacturers and wholesale level can be imposed at any time.
Criteria No. 4 of EO 104 says that if medicines are most prescribed by
physicians and it is not priced “fairly” based on DoH’s subjective judgment,
then it can be placed under price control.
It will be unfair for Philippine patients and the public
if effective treatments and vaccines against the virus are available in Hong
Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, etc. but not in the Philippines because of these
dangers.
While the DoH and the President may not have the time to
amend dangers 1 and 2, they have the time and power to rethink EO 104 as its
timing is very bad at the moment. They should pull out this order without
fanfare.
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