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House may soften on cheaper medicines bill

The House of Representatives may soften its stand on the controversial cheaper medicines bill. In an interview, Speaker Jose de Venecia urged the proponents of the Cheaper Medicines Act to consider the request of doctors to remove the provision on the “prescription of generic names of drugs.” De Venecia already said he talked to the principal author of the bill, Iloilo Rep. Ferjenel Biron, to open a dialogue with doctors.

“I talked to him [Biron] over the phone to consider or include the request of the doctors in Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao and in Metro Manila,”de Venecia said.

But de Venecia said that doctors should also appeal to senators since the bill will be acted upon by the both chambers of Congress.

Members of the Philippine Medical Association earlier threatened to stage a “hospital holiday” to express their objection to a provision of the bill, which mandates doctors to prescribe only generic names of drugs.

The doctors claimed that they also have to prescribe branded drugs during certain occasions.

On the other hand, Biron said that among the salient features of the bill, the provisions on the prescription of generic drugs could be easily reconciled or resolved. –Maricel V. Cruz

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