Pharma wants bigger budget for UHC

The pharmaceutical industry wants a higher budget for the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law to cover cost of medicines for poor patients.

While expressing support for the Department of Health (DOH)’s efforts to reduce cost of medicines, the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP) said the endeavor is not enough.

PHAP president Teodoro Padilla said they would seek a meeting with Health

Secretary Francisco Duque III to harmonize their efforts to lower medicine prices in the country.

“We hope to discuss existing high-impact patient assistance programs by individual PHAP members that give free screening and diagnostic tests, education and counseling and special medicine pricing for patients to lower total treatment cost,” Padilla said in a statement.

He added that the PHAP shares the same objective with the DOH to lower medicine prices and make health care more accessible to all Filipinos.

“We are reaching out to the government as a partner so that it does not have to resort to price control which could be contentious and counter