The Pangasinan Star ONLINE

AFTER ALL
By Behn Fer. Hortaleza


WE have long been hearing of public complaints that some of the bigger drugstores in the city, especially those secretly owned or partly-owned by prominent physicians or big companies are the first to circumvent the Generics Law on drugs by actually refusing to have such generic (and therefore cheaper) drugs in their inventory. We thought it was all an unfounded whine among the poor who usually try to look for generic drug equivalent of their doctor’s prescription only to be told by such drugstores that they have none – only branded medicines are in their stock.

What is left for the poor buyer to do but to go home empty-handed to his sick kin and make do with herbal palliatives because he didn’t have enough money to buy the branded ones? It’s so cruel a scenario often played out in the counter of some of the bigger drugstores whose fat owners seem to have put profit above everything else in their “public service” How many drugstores carry the products of Unilab, the manufacturer of cheaper Rite-Med common medicine, you can count with the fingers of one hand. That, if you ask us, readily tells on the concerned pharmacies’ social conscience.

An antibiotic like cefuroxime capsule of 500 mg.,for instance which in its generic form fetches for some P50 plus would be sold at P80 in its branded version which the apparently “trained” pharmacy help would tell you is what’s only available at the moment.

A repeat visit to the same drugstore some other days for the same prescription would yield the same answer, uttered mantra-like: that they’ve run out of the generic form and only the branded is available. Will you take it, sir, or leave it?

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That is why we can only laugh sick when we hear of government health officials saying they are launching campaigns against “fake” or “counterfeit” drugs in the market with pharmaceutical company bigwigs like Mercury Drug and in Dagupan City, St. Joseph , for their allies -- like every other “smaller” drugstore was already guilty of substandard product by inference. Pardon us but isn’t this already past the border of fair action and already sounding like private marketing?

There was in fact this health official who unabashedly plugged for the big drugstores by vouching for their reliability, going to the extent of warning the public that if a drug is “priced much lower than others of its kind,” it’s got to be fake or counterfeit.

So, what happens now to generic drugs – that are naturally sold cheaper than “others of their kind”, if these are available at all? Discarded, with extreme prejudice, huh, Doc?

We’ll go with his warning though that drugs with foreign markings in their cover or label should be immediately viewed with concern by a buyer since these are obviously not registered with the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD).

The line about “feeling assured of safety and reliability” when a drug is priced high however is disquieting, to say the least, because immediately it preconditions the public’s mind that if they’re sick and want to get well, their only, repeat, only means of cure are those high-priced stuff peddled by name drugstore chains. Other than that, they might just as well keel over and meet their Maker. That’s just like a judge pronouncing a death verdict on a hapless accused.

The proper function of government officials and employees is to see to it that the best, affordable remedy is left open to the indigents and the needy –and not to act as marketing agents of interests whose line of business inevitably falls under their jurisdiction or supervision. Ever heard of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, or the Government Employees Code of Ethics?

Ironically, before we forget, our poor barangaymates tell us it is in the “smaller” drugstores (those found away from hospital zones and doctor’s clinics) where they often find and are able to buy generic drug equivalent of their prescriptions. And, by the grace of God, they get well!