Our issue today is how we can lower down all the prices of medicine in the market. All the basic commodities prices are increasing and it is basic to us to include medicines under our needs. The Philippines in its poorest condition has one of the most expensive medicines sold in its market. Our medicine prices are probably 10 times higher than medicine prices in India.
There are a lot of poor people in India because of their huge population and many of them have a different mindset which may also have an attribute to their present state. But India in totality is far more prosperous than the Philippines today, technology and industry wise, which the Philippines has so far been left behind. It is therefore unacceptable that this nation which is far more advanced than us can afford to provide its constituents with lesser priced medicine while we are wallowing with first world medicine prices.
The generics medicine came recently to save the day. We can buy medicine at prices more than half the current branded medicines have. It is really a relief for everyone specially for the less fortunate, the unemployed , the underemployed and even the employed but still poor. It is practically everybody's benefit to have cheaper medicines, but why does our government find it hard to minimize the prices of the medicine?
Pharmaceutical companies would argue that they have the right to set their own prices because this is their business. They are absolutely right, it is there business to provide medicine for the people and ensure that everybody benefits from their products. Businesses exist on a two way traffic scene, business benefits from the people's patronage on their products and the people benefits from these businesses through the help that their products provide to them. It is not that they exist because of profits alone!
It is also unfair for the generics drug producer to be maligned when they say that their products are substandard. Producing cheap products doesn't always follow that they are of lesser quality. This is true perhaps with many Chinese products that are sold at the lowest prices, products that will not last until you get home after you have bought it from the store. The generics products are probably more reliable than what they accuse them to be, substandard. I have tried some, and they were effective. I can't just tell you how much I have tested them because I for one cannot really say so much about its efficacy. I leave that to the authorities to find out.
These large pharmaceutical companies who cant really bend down to the generics levels because they claim that their costs are far greater than those who are producing generics drug, may have a reasonable argument. Research cost is too expensive and these generics drugs may just be copying what these large companies have and thereby producing the same kind of products, hence, producing the cheaper medicine.
You will also notice that these generics drug are not seen so much on tri-media advertisements, this is also one of the factors that lowers down the cost of these medicines. Large pharmaceuticals spend a lot in marketing their medicines. They spend on TV and radio ads a lot; they spend on print ads a lot too. You don't mention their cost in distributing their products as well. The salesmen they mobilize to move their products across the land are also expensive. You can just see the well dress medical representatives driving the latest car models to visit their doctor's everyday. These medical representatives spend so much for their doctors too by providing them a lot of perks which in return their doctors must prescribe their medicines to their patients. I know some who would sponsor the doctors' trip abroad which can run to several thousands of pesos, others would shoulder all the doctors office supplies and many more.
Now tell me if they cannot lower down cost!
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