PH Pharmacists 5: PPhA Convention 2012, Day 2

Yesterday afternoon, I attended the 2nd day of the Philippine Pharmacists Association (PPhA) National Convention at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila. I skipped the morning session because I attended the "Online Onsite" program of interaksyon.com at the Enterprise Center, Ayala Avenue, Makati City. I spoke in an informal setting, about the conflict with China over Scarborough Shoal, the Spratly Islands, at the West Philippine Sea or South China Sea, and the interaksyon guys were tweeting my talk, feeding me questions from twitter and from other guys on the site which I also answered. Here's my presentation there,  http://interaksyon.com/assets/documents/interaksyon_online_onsite.pdfinteraksyon.com

Thus, I was not able to listen to the presentations of four good speakers like Dr. Lagrada of PhilHealth, Joey Ochave of UL, John Ware of WPPF, and Ms. Marilyn Tiu of the Board of Pharmacy.

I was not able to leave Makati early, I wanted to hear Dr. Midha's presentation about bioequivalence and related subjects. I came late, poor me. But I was able to hear the presentation by a good friend, John Chang, the President of FAPA, then by Leonie Ocampo.

John talked about the evolving roles of pharmacists: Traditionally from compounder (of drug molecules) to medicine selling/dispensing to counselling + information, to patient care and pharmaceutical care. This is a good evolution of roles. Towards the latter part of his talk, John showed a quote something like "There's no future in (medicine) dispensing, it can be done via the internet, by the machine, or hardly-trained personnel".

There is truth to this. Many pharmacies and drugstores -- especially those owned by the government (Botika ng Barangay or BnB, supported by the DOH), or private non-chain drugstores -- are manned by non-pharmacists, some even have zero formal training in pharmacy. They could be any political appointee by the Barangay or Village Chairman.

So it is possible that many pharmacists are over-educated (mind you, they have to pass a board and licensure exam by the government after hurdling 4 years of college education) if their work will just be limited or focused on drug dispensing and selling.

John also discussed about a debate in some countries where physicians complain or charge that "pharmacists act like physicians", and the reverse of the argument, that "physicians act like pharmacists." It's about the division of labor between the two on drug prescription vs. drug dispensing. John said that there should be complementarity of function between the two because the goal is the same -- patient care. Nice point there, John.

I don't have photo of John and Leonie during the convention, but I have one during the CGDA Conference in Taiwan last November. From left: Nancy Tacandong of FDA, John Chang, Leonie Ocampo, me and Joey Ochave.

The presentation by Leonie was good, lots of good data for the Philippines, like the following:

1. In community pharmacy, about 60 percent of the pharmacy business is controlled by the biggest chain with 800+ outlets nationwide. (That's Mercury, who else -- me)

2. About 40 percent of the business by 5,000+ outlets from different companies.
-- 70 percent of this 40 percent are from five chain pharmacies (That's Rose, Watsons, Med Express, The Generics, who's the 5th? -- me).
-- 30 percent of this 40 percent are from single branch pharmacy operations (The BnBs and Botika ng Bayan or BNB are not included in this 40 percent? -- me). The practice of pharmacy here is mainly dispensing, almost nothing else.

3. Hospital pharmacy constitutes 10 percent of the total pharmacy business. And this is dominated by 10 big hospitals (Makati Med, St. Lukes, Medical City, PGH,...)

Then Leonie discussed some unfavorable practices of the profession:

- Poor implementation of the "no prescription, no dispensing" rule;
- Poor storage of medicines practices,
- Medication counselling is not practiced;
- Sale of medicines unsupervised by trained pharmacists in non-traditional outlets (like those walking house to house carrying medicines in hand bags, selling drugs in public markets, etc. -- me)

She noted that "Pharmacists appear overeducated and underutilized". Thus, there is big role by the PPhA being the main (and only) professional association of Filipino pharmacists. PPhA is the umbrella organization of 10 affiliate organizations and 82 local and provincial chapters.

The various initiatives, projects and networking by PPhA were discussed by Leonie. I won't mention them here, I think her presentation will be made available in their website soon.

In relation to the top killer diseases in the Philippines and worldwide, about 2/3 are from non-communicable diseases (NCDs), medicine and lifestyle counselling will be an important role for pharmacists. What good are the most effective drugs made cheaper via drug price control and coercion policy, or even freely available via government of hospitals and assistance to the poor, if the patient will continue their unhealthy lifestyle like over-drinking, over-smoking, over-eating fatty and salty food, over-sitting and sedentary life?

Identification and monitoring of counterfeit and/or substandard drugs is also an important function for pharmacists. We ordinary folks will not be able to detect such, especially if we go to lesser known or even known for notoriety pharmacies, and worse from non-traditional outlets like "sari-sari" or variety stores, those sold on house to house marketing, etc.

Again, it is refreshing to hear that many of public health problems have private solutions, relying little or zero on politics and politicians. Health is mainly personal and parental + civil society responsibility.

* See also  PH Pharmacists 4: PPhA Convention 2012, Day 1, April 27, 2012

PH Pharmacists 4: PPhA Convention 2012, Day 1

Upon the invitation of the President of the Philippine Pharmacists Association (PPhA), Ms. Leonila "Leonie" Ocampo, I attended yesterday the afternoon activity, also the formal opening ceremony, of the PPhA National Convention 2012, held at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila. There was a poster and product exhibit in the morning at the conference venue.

I was amazed at the big crowd, more than 2,000 pharmacists from around the country came, the biggest turnout so far. I will post photos later.

Here is the program for the Opening Ceremony.

I was able to see the procession, then heard the opening message of Leonie and the keynote speech of Dr. Kamal Midha, the presentation of plaque, then I left. I will come later today, afternoon session as I have a talk in the morning on the Spratly/Scarborough Shoal, or the dispute in the West Philippine Sea or South China Sea, depending on which country you are standing on.

The welcome reception yesterday was sponsored by the United Laboratories (Unilab or UL) and its VP, Mr. Chito Sta. Maria, would give the message. UL is a giant pharma company here. Although it is a generic manufacturer, its annual sales is larger than the combined sales of #s 2 to 4, all innovator companies (GSK, Pfizer and #4 Wyeth, I think), it has lots of resources to give food, prizes, entertainment and other perks to the convention participants and organizers.

Dr. Midha's talk focused on rational use of medicines (RUM), the characteristics of medicines that should reach the public, and the importance of bioequivalence testing especially for generic drugs. He used the WHO definition of RUM -- right needs of a patient, right dosage, right time, and at affordable price.

There are six characteristics of medicines for the public, he said: Safe (adverse effect is avoided), Effective, Patient-centered, Timely, Efficient and Equitable. In particular, Quality, Safety, Efficacy and Affordability are all required characteristics.

He also discussed the problem of counterfeit medicines and how the public, with the assistance of pharmacists and other health professionals, can detect and avoid them. He said that Council of Europe has certain guidelines to help along this line, like all medicines should have 13 digits barcode.

Bioequivalence is important -- pharmaceutical equivalence, bioavailabilities after administration of the same molar dose under the same condition would show essentially the same effect as the innovator drugs.

I was actually expecting that Dr. Midha would give a technical presentation, like what are the strict processes required before bioequivalence can be declared or stamped on generic drugs that are newly introduced. Or the problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) that are related to irrational use of medicines. But nonetheless, his presentation was clear.

I was happy to see again yesterday two friends whom I have met during the Taiwan conference last November, the President of the Federation of Asian Pharmaceutical Associations (FAPA), Mr. John Chang from Malaysia, and FAPA Past President, Dr. Soo Ja Nam from S. Korea. PPhA Past President Normita Leyesa was also there of course.

What I find impressive in the PPhA Convention is the absence of high government officials -- say the DOH Secretary, or WHO Regional Director or Representative, or PhilHealth President -- as speakers, something that is so common in many private sector- or NGO-organized events like this one. Instead, key leaders of the profession, especially the Presidents (and past President) of the three international organizations (FIP, FAPA and WPPF) were given prominent roles to speak in the convention.

This is the way to strengthen and professionalize civil society organizations (CSOs) like the PPhA. To stand on their own, discuss matters among themselves, and rely less on certain political favors that high government officials would give them.

More stories and photos later...
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See also:
PH Pharmacists 1: Convention in Naga, April 06, 2011
PH Pharmacists 2: Patient Rights and Responsibilities, April 08, 2011
PH Pharmacists 3: Public Health and PPhA 2012 National Convention, April 16, 2012

PH Pharmacists 3: Public Health and PPhA 2012 National Convention

The practice of pharmacy -- linking chemical sciences with health sciences, compounding and dispensing medicines and pharmaceutical products for effective and safe use by patients -- is an important aspect in public health, or more specifically, in personal health. And since healthcare is first and foremost personal and parental/guardian responsibility, not much government responsibility, the skillful advice of pharmacists when to use medicines, how, at what dosage and timing, etc., or even when not to use medicines (e.g., do not take paracetamol + ibuprofen on empty stomach) is important in promoting personal healthcare.

Like other health sciences, pharmacy is both a science and a community practice. As a science, a pharmacist deals with pharmaceutical microbiology and parasitology, physical and manufacturing pharmacy, quality control, pharmaceutical biochemistry, plant chemistry, a country's medicinal plants, and so on.

As community practice, a pharmacist deals with pharmaceutical calculations, hospital/clinical/community  pharmacy, dispensing and medication counseling, pharmacology, clinical toxicology, pharmaceutical jurisprudence and ethics, pharmaceutical marketing and entrepreneurship and so on.

I saw in wikipedia that there are 11 different types of pharmacy practice areas, including internet pharmacy and veterinary pharmacy, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmacy.

In the Philippines, the sole national organization of these professionals is the Philippine Pharmacists Association (PPhA, http://www.philpharmacists.org/). I am fortunate to befriend the past and current Presidents of PPhA, Ms. Normita Leyesa and Ms. Leonila "Leonie" Ocampo, respectively. I get new perspectives from them in some public health issues and debates, ranging from rational use of medicines (RUM) to pharmacy practices to Botika ng Barangay (BnB) to drug price control, among others.

The PPhA will hold their annual national convention this year at the UST in Manila. This event attracts more than 1,500 participants per year as the various lectures and networking are useful in the practice of their profession.

Last year, in the 2011 National Convention of PPhA, Leonie inivted me as one of the speakers in one of different panels, I spoke on "Patient Rights and Responsibilities: Patients/Consumers Perspective". It was the biggest crowd I ever spoke to, a big auditorium full of health professionals, a bit scary for me then :-)

On another note, the PPhA is pushing for a new Pharmacy Law. I saw one bill, the proposed "Philippine Pharmacy Act", SB 2163 authored by Sen. Francis Escudero,  http://www.senate.gov.ph/lisdata/97098332!.pdf.

The goal of such proposed legislation is to professionalize further the practice of pharmacy in the country, so that the staff who face the patients and their guardians in drugstores and pharmacies are indeed well-trained and updated about pharmacy as a science and as a community practice. This is a good objective.

But I notice that there are many strict regulations to be imposed. This can be a double-edged material for both the professionals and the public. For the former, they will be compelled to remain updated in the new knowledge about their profession. But for some small drugstores and drug outlets including those owned by the government like the BnB and Botika ng Bayan (BNB), strict and costly requirements may force them to hire unlicensed and less-trained pharmacy professionals in their drug outlets. And public health may be compromised on certain cases.

The theme this year is direct and clear, "Best pharmacy practices for quality and safety." I wish the PPhA officers and members a successful convention.
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See also:
PH Pharmacists 1: Convention in Naga, April 06, 2011
PH Pharmacists 2: Patient Rights and Responsibilities, April 08, 2011

Generic Drugs Asia 2: My presentation at CGDA 2011

Posting my presentation here during the CGDA 2011 in Taiwan, including my adlibs during the talk. Many of these slides and images can be found in my previous articles here....
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Being the 3rd to the last speaker in a two days full conference has the advantage because people are rather tired and would want to see and hear the presentations quick. So instead of 30 minutes alloted to us, I will speak for only 15 minutes as much as possible, so you have to read fast as I will speak fast :-)

During the welcome dinner last Friday, some fellow people there including fellow speakers asked me if we are a government think tank. So I added these (3rd and 4th) slides).

(5th slide) Consumer interest is more options, period. Whether the price is lower or higher, the quality is shiny or not, let the consumers choose. In a competitive market, consumers can choose whether they want to buy at equilibrium point A or B or C or ... Z. Under a price controlled market, prices at the upper level are abolished and hence, consumer choices are reduced, limited to only those within or below the price set by the government. And this is wrong.

(Slide 8) The good news is that life expectancy around the world is rising, up to 80s in many rich countries like Japan, UK, etc. The bad news is that about two-third (2/3) of all deaths around the world on average are from non-communicable diseases (NCDs): cardiovascular, cancer, respiratory, diabetes, other NCDs. One lesson here is that oftentimes, there is high focus on curative healthcare and people neglect preventive healthcare.

(Slide 10) The implications for this data of declining AIDS death are: (1) medications and treatment are somehow working, (2) previous estimates and projections of death from AIDS were exaggerated, and (3) people are more careful these days to avoid getting AIDS.

(Slides 11 and 12) The same pattern of high incidence of death from NCDs is also observed in the Philippines. Data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) and the Department of Health (DOH).

(Slide 13) The photos and images here are real, some are just for fun, but they illustrate the causes of many self-inflicted diseases -- heavy drinking, smoking and eating.

We now go to Drug Price Control policy and the generics...

Prices of both innovator and branded generics have been declining even before the policy was imposed due to increasing competition.

(Slide 21) Data is from Watsons Pharmacy and it reflects the move towards the innovator drugs by the ABC class, the main customers of Watsons.

(Slides 22 and 23) These charts are from the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP) and they illustrate the high costs of R&D, the high failure rate, in drug innovation. And of the 20 years total patent period, actual commercial period is only about 11 1/2 years. Which shows the need for IPR protection.

(Slide 24) Research against cancer is high, and this is good. My brother, his wife, my uncle, two of our wedding godmothers, have all died of cancer. It is a messy and costly disease.

These are news reports about the future promises of drug innovation: vaccine against malaria, patent sharing to kill AIDS... news drugs against viral infection, augmenting our immune system to identify and kill cancer cells.

(Slide 27) This is related to the presentation by Mr. Ramana of Dr. Reddy's this morning. That Indian pharma companies are moving into the advance research and possibly innovator field.

(Slides 28 and 29) The shortage of critical medicines like anti-infection and anti-cancer were reported in the US, also in Canada. New cancer cases are now estimated at 12 million per year.

Here now are my concluding notes...

(Slide 35) Joey Ochave warned me of such press releases, that this and that new drug can treat dengue and other diseases. Nonetheless, if such vaccines are made available to the public, even at initial high prices, still people have the option of getting them or ignoring them and stick to standard preventive measures like having a clean environment.

My references are here. I'm done, thank you.

(I missed my self-imposed target of 15 minutes talk only because our moderator, Joseph Wang, the President-Elect of FAPA, smilingly told me that I spoke for 20 minutes. Nonetheless, I gave the audience and fellow speakers 10 minutes of extra rest for the coffee break :-))

IPR and Medicines 18: Generic Drugs and the Consumers

Here in Taipei, my first time to set foot in Taiwan. Arrived at my hotel this afternoon, and the two days conference plus half day closed door meeting will start tomorrow. Below is my article today in the online magazine, an intro about the conference here.
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http://www.thelobbyist.biz/perspectives/less-gorvernment/1236-generic-drugs-and-the-consumers

Generic drugs are those products that are of comparable quality and efficacy to branded or innovator drugs, and are marketed by their generic and molecule names, not brand names.

Drugs usually start from innovator products developed by the innovator and research pharmaceutical companies and are patented. Once the patent expires, the molecule enters the public domain and any generic manufacturer/s can produce their own products provided they pass the various tests given by the government Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) or related bodies. Consumers and patients benefit from more drugs from various generic manufacturers, which has the direct impact of reduced prices due to competition among them.

This coming November 19-21, 2011, the Pharmaceu-tical Society of Taiwan and the Federation of Asian Pharmaceu-tical Associations (FAPA) will jointly sponsor the Asia Generics Conference to be held in Taipei, Taiwan. It is a big conference with participants from many Asian countries, mostly pharmacists, government drug regulators, generic manufacturers and the public or consumer groups.

I was invited to be one of the panel speakers on “Generics: The Perspective of Healthcare Providers and Patients”. I was referred to the organizers by the President of the Philippine Pharmacists Association (PPhA), Ms. Leonila Ocampo, who is a friend and loves reading my articles on Philippine drug policy and other health issues. Thanks again Leonie for such referral.

There are five other speakers in our panel: Generics - Scientist’s Perspective by Prof. Leslie Benet of the University of California School of Pharmacy, USA; Doctor’s Perspective by Dr. Chia-Jui Su of Min-Sheng General Hospital, Taiwan; Pharmacist’s Perspective by Mr. Shinichi Yamamura of Japan Pharmaceutical Association; Public’s Perspective by Ms. Eva His-Hua Teng of Taiwan Psycho-Social Rehabilitation, and Mr. Ivan Li-En Liu of Yeschain Pharma Group.

The main interest of consumers and the public is more choices. Whether they are buying clothes, food, shoes, cell phones or medicines, it is to their benefit if they can find more choices and options among the various products and brands on the same category of goods and services.

Thus, in my presentation, I will focus on government policies that expand the consumers’ choices and criticize policies that tend to reduce such choices. In the case of generic drugs, one Philippine government policy in favor of it was the Generics Law of 1988 where providing the generic name of the drugs prescribed by physicians was made mandatory. Many generic manufacturers were encouraged by this policy and so they developed their own brands on certain molecular values.

One policy though that worked against the generics, was the drug price control policy of 2009. Popular drugs by multinational innovator companies were slapped with the policy, forcing their prices to be 50 percent cheaper, resulting in the shift back to the branded innovator drugs for many patients.

But more than cheaper generics, the public and the patients also have special interest to get new drugs against diseases which have no existing medication and vaccines yet, like dengue and various types of cancer. Or more powerful and more disease-killer drugs compared to existing ones, whether patented or off-patent. Hence, the public would be interested to get those innovator drugs even if they may be sold high initially.

The most expensive drugs are those that don’t work and don’t cure the sick. They may be very cheap but if the patient does not get well, or worse, developing new diseases as the virus, bacteria, or other causes of the disease are mutating and evolving into more dangerous strains, then the initial cheap treatment may turn out to be actually expensive. Thus, early and effective treatment is important, involving not only medicines but also other preventive measures like proper diet, avoiding food, drinks, smoking and other lifestyles that can aggravate the problem.

I am excited to be part of this big regional conference, not only to impart my knowledge and perspectives on the issue assigned to me, be questioned later, but more to learn from other speakers and participants in the various panels. After all, life is all about learning, endless learning, to better improve our own lives and that of our community and society.

PH Pharmacists 2: Patient Rights and Responsibilities

(Note: this is my article today in thelobbyist.biz)

Patients have the right to receive considerate, respectful and compassionate care regardless of age, gender, religion, nationality, sexual orientation or disabilities, from hospitals and other healthcare institutions they go to. But patients have the responsibility to provide complete and accurate information about their full name, address, health and medical history, present condition, past illnesses and related information when required.

These are among the topics that we discussed yesterday in Day 2 of the 3-days National Convention of the Philippine Pharmacists Association (PPhA) held at the Capitol Convention Center, Camsur Watersports Complex (CWC), Naga City, Camarines Sur.

The convention center was fully packed with possibly 1,500 people in the audience. I was one of three speakers yesterday morning. I talked on the “Patient Perspective” while Dr.. Eleonor Almoro, an OB-Gyne specialist andand faculty member of St. Lukes College of Medicine, talked on the “Physician Perspective.” Ms. Leonila Ocampo, current President of the Association talked about the PPhA Declaration of Patient Rights.

I thanked Leonie and Ma’am Mita Leyesa, past President of PPhA, for inviting me to this big Convention. I have known them for about two years now, they read my papers and articles including my book Health Choices and Responsibilities, that is why they invited me to be among the speakers in their event.

Patient rights and responsibilities refer to a set or bill of rights that a patient is expected to get from a hospital and its health professionals. Other patient rights include: (a) Right to receive care in a safe environment free from all forms of abuse, neglect, or mistreatment; (b) Right to be told the names of their doctors, nurses, and all health care team members providing healthcare; and (c) Right to have a family member or person of their choice and their own doctor notified promptly if admitted to the hospital, and so on.

The other patient responsibilities include: (a) To ask questions when patients do not understand information or instructions. Related to their treatment plan. If they do not follow the treatment plan, patients are responsible for the outcomes; and (b) Participate actively in their pain management plan, inform their doctors, nurses, pharmacists, other team members of the effectiveness of their treatment, and so on.

Each hospital and healthcare facility has, or is supposed to have, its own set of patient rights and responsibilities, This is important as it clearly delineates the distribution of responsibilities between the patients (and their guardians) and the hospital and health facilities management and health professionals. In a sense, there is a strong assignment of personal responsibility in healthcare and treatment of patients.

Talking about personal (and parental) responsibility of healthcare, the National Statistics Office (NSO) released the Death Statistics 2007 sometime middle of last month. It showed that the top 4 diseases were responsible for nearly 50 percent of all deaths in the country in 2007. These are: (1) Heart diseases: Coronary, cardiovascular, heart failure; (2) Cerebrovascular diseases: Brain dysfunction, hypertension, stroke; (3) Cancer: lung, liver, prostate, 200+ types; and (4) Pneumonia: Lung inflammation due to virus, bacteria, fungi, parasites. The 5th killer disease is Tuberculosis.

These are mostly lifestyle-related diseases. Gone are the days where the top killer diseases in the country are polio, malaria, dengue, flu and so on.

So, is “more government responsibility” in healthcare feasible?

Technically YES. All government spending is a political act. Whether the public debt is as high as Mt. Apo, if politicians will decide to increase spending on any particular sector, they can. But is it feasible without further long-term damage to fiscal situation and future spending on healthcare and other social services?

The answer is NO. Here are the outstanding debt of the national government: from P2.2 trillion in 2000, up to P3.4 trillion in 2003, up to P3.8 trillion in 2006, then P4.4 trillion in 2009, and P4.7 trillion as of end-2010.

The total budget in 2010 was about P1.7 trillion. Or our public debt is now more than 3x the total expenditures for the year. It’s a number that we cannot really be proud of.

Out of those trillions of pesos of public debt, how much are we paying each year?

From P227 B in 2000 to P470 B in 2003, P854 B in 2006, P622 B in 2009 and P670 B last year. There were lots of maturing debts that have to be paid middle of last decade. After that, debt payment somehow declined but still at a high level of close to P700 billion.

Interest payment constitutes about 40 percent of those annual debt payment. Almost P300 billion in interest payment alone in 2010, What does it mean?

It means that for every P5 of total government expenditure, P1 goes to interest payment alone. Principal amortization takes away more than P1 of that. So that ALL the sectors combined – healthcare, education, housing, agriculture, public works, social work, justice system, police, armed forces, the judiciary, congress, the various constitutional commissions like Comelec and COA – will have to fight it out with the remaining less than P3.

Increasing borrowings and bloating the public debt for whatever new programs, therefore, will be counter-productive as it will only mean less resources even for existing and continuing programs.

I added in my presentation, patient rights with respect to the pharmacists. This include the right to confidentiality of patient records, and the right to proper advice in rational use and non-abuse of medicines, especially if medicines are to be distributed free by government and other civic organizations.

On the issue of drug-switching in particular, some patients’ have the tendency to switch arbitrarily to the cheapest generic to get savings. Pharmacists should be able to explain to patients about the issue of bio-equivalence, pharma equivalence and related issues. Getting the cheapest generic drugs available is understandable, but if patients will experience some adverse effects later if the switched drug do not contain the necessary ingredients that a particular patient’s “bio-markers” will need, then other health problems will occur later.

Someday, pharmacists will be more integratedl within the health care system with more patient care skills, and not just selling and dispensing medicines.

PH Pharmacists 1: Convention in Naga

This afternoon, I am going to Naga City, Camarines Sur, Bicol region. There is an on-going Philippine Pharmacists Association (PPhA) National Convention there, today until Friday. Tomorrow morning, I will be one of the panel speakers and I will speak on "Patient Rights and Responsibilities: Patient perspective".

I thanked Ms. Leonie Ocampo, the current President of PPhA, and Ma'am Mita Leyesa, the immediate past President of PPhA, for inviting me as one of their speakers. I kidded them that since the title of my book is Health Choices and Responsibilities, and I will speak on Patient Rights and Responsibilities, I can just copy-paste some of the things that I wrote in the book and present to the audience :-)

I have known Ma'am Mita (2nd from right) and Leonie (4th from right) since two years ago, at the various health fora and at the DOH Advisory Council on Price Regulation. They read my papers on health policy, they said they like my ideas. This picture I took from their website photo gallery.

They know how subversive my mind and ideas are, on the role and misrule of certain government interventions, on the potentials and limits of markets. They are risking their professional stature for inviting me as a speaker because I might turn my subversive mind on them :-)

See you PPhA guys tonight and tomorrow.
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I wrote this last August 25, 2010:

A Night with Filipino Pharmacists

In the various discussions on drug price control policy of the Philippine government, like at the DOH Advisory Council on Price Regulation, I have met some of the top leaders of the Philippine Pharmacists Association (PPhA). I have befriended them, and would occasionally ask some data from them, which I used for some of my articles on the subject. 

Last Friday, August 20, the PPhA celebrated its 90th anniversary and appreciation night, and a day before that, I was invited by its current President, Mrs. Leonila "Leonie" Ocampo, to join them. Leonie is a good friend and I have asked some data from her on the price-controlled drugs from her drugstore chain. So when Leonie invited me, I immediately said Yes.

They gave a special award to several personalities that night, like the immediate past President, Dr. Normita Leyesa, and DOH USec Alex Padilla. Top officials of some drugstores, big and small, were also there.

In this picture, Leonie beside me, 3 officers and members of PPhA, and Ms. Leyesa at extreme right. In the dinner table, I have also met some academics -- Deans and faculty members of the College of Pharmacy of some universities here.

The event was held at the Bayanihan Center of United Laboratories (UL or Unilab), the biggest pharma company in the country, a local firm, with sales probably equivalent to the combined sales of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th biggest pharma companies here, all multinationals -- GSK, Pfizer and... I forgot the 4th one. It was the first time that I set foot on UL compound too. From the size of the compound alone, UL is indeed a giant corporation in the pharma industry. Here, a picture of Mr. Jose Campos, UL founder.

I am thankful to Leonie, also Ma'am Normita, for the opportunity to join them that night.