Novartis lowers prices of hypertension, epilepsy drugs

Effective July 1, 2019 the prices of six hypertension and epilepsy medicines of Novartis will be reduced substantially.

The price reduction of the Novartis hypertension medicines ranges from 15 to 61 percent, covering Valsartan, Valsartan + Hydrochlorothiazide, Valsartan + Amlodipine, and Valsartan + Amlodipine + Hydrochlorothiazide.

The price reduction of the Novartis epilepsy medicines ranges from 10 to 87 percent, covering Carbamazepine and Oxcarbazepine.

“Novartis is implementing our Legacy Pricing initiative in the Philippines in line with our shared goal of providing Filipinos with affordable access to sustainable healthcare,” said Jugo Tsumura, country president and managing director, Novartis Healthcare Philippines.

Legacy Pricing is the latest Novartis initiative in the Philippines aimed at supporting the implementation of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act and providing Filipinos across socioeconomic segments with access to essential and innovative medicines.

“Our access programs in the Philippines have evolved from donation of multi-drug therapy for leprosy, providing malaria products at cost, access to lower-priced emerging market brands for psoriasis and heart failure, to creating patient support programs,” Tsumura explained.

In recent years, Novartis has partnered with the Department of Health (DOH) in key projects to support the Philippine government’s goal of improving access to medicines and health service delivery to all Filipinos.

1) The Leprosy Alert and Response Network System (LEARNS), the country’s first mobile phone-based leprosy referral system, is a mobile health application that improves leprosy case finding and diagnosis; 2) Novartis anti-malaria medicines are provided at cost to support the DOH National Malaria Control Program; 3) The Palawan Access to Medicines Program

(Tulay sa Kalusugan), where a tiered pricing model to improve access to diabetes and hypertention medicines was implemented in key areas in Palawan in collaboration with the provincial government of Palawan, the LGUs of Puerto Princesa, Brooke’s Point, Narra, Roxas and Coron, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and other pharmaceutical companies

“Our mission is reimagining medicine to improve and extend people’s lives. To achieve our purpose, we work to improve access and affordability of our medicines,” Tsumura said.