PITC, company approve pact on generic drugs

Manila Bulletin
December 5, 2006

The Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) and Interphil, the Zuellig Group’s publicly traded contract pharmaceutical manufacturing arm, signed yesterday a cooperation agreement on the production and distribution of generic counterparts of 20 most commonly used medicines in the country.

PITC Chairman Secretary Roberto Pagdanganan announced that seven commonly used medicines, including drugs used against hypertension and diabetes, would be available in the market at lower prices soon after the signing of the agreement witnessed by President Arroyo in Malacañang yesterday morning.

Pagdanganan said 13 other commonly used medicines would be made available at lower prices by August 2007 when PITC’s agreement with Interphil is fully implemented.

He said the program would bolster President Arroyo’s campaign to halve the cost of medicines by 2010.

Mrs. Arroyo welcomed the agreement and said: "I am pleased that my propoor agenda is getting support such as this from our nation’s private sector. Government and business must work together if we are going to meet the target of eliminating poverty and reaching first-world status by 2020."

The first seven commonly used medicines to be manufactured under the agreement are: Ceterizine (anti-allergy); Sinvastatice (anti-cholesterol); Lozartane (anti-hypertension); Cifrofloxacine (antibiotic); Claritromycin (antibiotic); Clindamycin (antibiotic); and Gliclazide (anti-diabetes).

Pagdanganan said no legal problems are expected with the manufacturing of the 20 generic drugs by Interphil and the PITC as the agreement only covers off-patent drugs. (David Cagahastian)

Company to produce low-cost drugs

 
INTERPHIL, the Zuelig Group’s pharmaceutical arm in the Philippines, signed an agreement with the Philippine government to manufacture some 20 off-patent drugs as part of the administration’s commitment to cut the cost of selected drugs for the poor by some 50 percent.

Interphil president Francisco Billano and Secretary Roberto Pagdanganan, chairman of Philippine International Trading Corp., signed the agreement, which will be for an initial three-year period.

Roberto R. Romulo, chairman of the Zuellig Pharma’s holding company, said they have agreed to produce generic drugs most needed by the disadvantaged members following Malaca­ñang’s request to assist in producing cheap but quality drugs.

“In doing this, we will deliver high-quality products, manufactured in our international standard facility, at the most affordable prices. This is part of our effort to support the government’s health-care development agenda,” Romulo said.

The medicines to be produced include drugs for therapeutic areas from antihyper­tension, antidiabetes and anti-infectives. Pagdanganan said among these medicines Inter­phil would produce include ceterizine (antial­lergy), sirvas­tatice (anticholes­terol), lozar­tane (antihyperten­sion), cifro­floxacine (antibiotic), clindamy­cin (antibiotic) and gliclazide (antidiabetes).

The government’s half-priced medicine program aims to reduce the prices of drugs that are being patronized by low-income families to half of their 2001 costs by 2010.

Malacañang added that the program has a three-point strategy—expansion of product range, expansion of distribution of network and advocacy and information campaign.
--Sam Mediavilla