Posted 11:35pm (Mla time) May 12, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service

Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the May 13, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

TWO related stories on medicines that appeared in newspapers early this week need further clarification. One was false, the other true.

The first was a press release quoting the World Health Organization that imported medicines were "fakes." The second was the statement of a world renowned nutritionist that alternative medicines, such as herbals, may be doing more harm than good, and can even result in death. Let's look into these assertions more closely.

The propaganda campaign against medicine imports is obviously aimed at the parallel importations of the Philippine government itself through the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC). The Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration began to import medicines because of the high cost of medicines manufactured here by the cartel of multinational pharmaceutical companies. Medicines from India , Pakistan and Vietnam are much cheaper, sometimes up to 100 times cheaper, than those sold here by multinationals.

Obviously, although the PITC's parallel imports is still minuscule (the PITC has a budget of only P500 million for medicine imports, whereas the whole Philippine pharmaceuticals sales is P92 billion), the multinationals are already feeling the competition or are afraid the government's imports will eventually eat into their huge market share. So the cartel is waging a propaganda campaign to discredit them.

And the World Health Organization, an agency of the United Nations, is either a willing accomplice or is being unwittingly used by the cartel. In short, the multinationals and the WHO, which are operating here as guests of the Philippine government, are sabotaging the efforts of their host to help its constituents.

The WHO has defined all medicines sold in a country but not manufactured there as "counterfeit." Never mind if they are the same medicines manufactured by a sister company in another country, has the same brand, the same ingredients and strength -- in other words, identical with those being protected -- they are labeled as "counterfeit."

Unfortunately, "counterfeit" in the Philippines is confused with "fake" or "bogus" ("counterfeit" bills are also called "fake" and "bogus" bills). The pharmaceutical cartel is using this confusion to fool the public into believing that the PITC imports are "fake." In fact, even reporters, who should know better, have been fooled. In their stories, they interchange the words "counterfeit" and "fake" as if they have the same meanings.

Wrong. The PITC's imports are the same as their counterpart medicines manufactured here. They have the same ingredients, the same formulations, the same brands as their counterparts here, manufactured by the sister companies of the multinationals here. They are genuine. The only difference is that they are much, much cheaper.

What I don't understand is why the PITC is not defending its own products. It has been very quiet in the face of the propaganda against it. No press releases, no advertisements declaring that their imports are genuine, no list of their medicines and their prices compared with their counterparts manufactured here. Why? If you don't dispute the claims of the multinationals, the public will begin believing them even if they are false.