Press Release
January 19, 2007

ROXAS URGES LEGAL COMMUNITY TO BACK
BILL TO LOWER COST OF MEDICINES

Senator Mar Roxas, also known as Mr. Palengke, called on the legal community to back a pending bill that seeks to lower the costs of medicines in the country through amendments to the Intellectual Property Code.

The senator issued this call in his speech before the Philippine Bar Association during its regular fellowship luncheon at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City the other day. Also attending the luncheon were the officers and members of the Association, led by Victor P. Lazatin, President; Bienvenido Somera, Jr., First Vice President; Jose Feria Jr., Second Vice President; Arturo del Rosario, Third Vice President; Rodolfo Gamboa, Vice President for Administration & Finance; Manuel Barcelona III, Treasurer; and Vida M. Panganiban-Alindogan, Secretary.

In response, the PBA commended Roxas and expressed support to his bill, describing his efforts in promoting the Filipino nations health and physical well-being as noble.

The senator from Capiz, principal author of S. B. 2263, has been invited by the Association as its guest to discuss the landmark bill. Apart from highlighting the features of the bill, Roxas laid down the premise for the urgent need to amend the IPC so as to free the government to pursue measures that would lower the cost of medicines.

Congress will be in session for only three weeks. We need our peoples support for a bipartisan effort to pass this bill before we adjourn. Unless we pass SB 2263 and HB 6035 in three weeks, then we will be back to square one when a new Congress resumes in July, the senator explained.

Roxas, who is not a lawyer, said he is glad the PBA is interested in his proposal, noting that as practitioners of the law, they took the oath to defend and protect the people against all forms of injustice.

As a senator, so have I. It is patently unjust that our people are being made to pay 18 times more for quality medicines compared to the peoples of India and Canada . The passage of this law will help our people live long and healthy lives.

SB 2263 is co-authored by Senator Pia Cayetano. It has been certified as urgent by the Office of the President and is currently in the period of amendments in the Senate and due for sponsorship in the House of Representatives.

Under this bill, the country will adopt the doctrine of international exhaustion of intellectual property rights, from the present domestic exhaustion principle currently applied.

Under this doctrine, once a product has been introduced anywhere in the world by the patent owner, anyone may buy and import the same for resale without risk of patent infringement. This amendment will allow parallel importation of medicines so that anyone, whether a trader or an individual, can shop elsewhere for medicines with cheaper prices but of the same, if not higher, quality.

Further, the bill adopts the early working doctrine, the process by which generic companies are allowed to experiment and test for regulatory approval of generic versions of a drug or medicine before its patent expires. This will allow generic producers to get ready earlier so that they can start the production and sale of a generic drug shortly after its patent expires.

Roxass bill likewise removes the requirement for government to undergo the long and tedious compulsory licensing process so that government may avail of the medicine for public health reasons in a timely manner.

He emphasized that once enacted into law, this measure will lead to greater competition as it will loosen the monopolistic or oligopolistic power that multinational drug companies have long enjoyedand even abusedin the country.

The PBA, established on April 8, 1891 as the Colegio de Abogado de Filipinas, has been in the forefront of the peoples fight for the rule of law, and has in the past stood as vanguard of freedom, democracy, and liberty. It prides itself of having as members the likes of Apolinario Mabini, Felipe Calderon, Chief Justice Cayetano Arellano, Justice J. B. L. Reyes, Lorenzo Tanada, Claro M. Recto, Jovito Salonga, and many other eminent jurists and lawyers.

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