By Dhel Nazario
In pursuit of lower cost of medicines, and access to reliable healthcare solutions, the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD) established the Tuklas Lunas Program, which aims to produce reliable and affordable medicines sourced from our very own biodiversity.
According to Health Undersecretary Rolando Enrique Domingo, the Philippines still pay higher prices for medicines than other countries. This high cost of medicine has been a barrier to access reliable healthcare solutions, especially for low to middle income families.
Communities have been using remedies sourced from our very own biodiversity. These learnings served as the foundation for the development of the Lagundi and Sambong products under the Council’s National Integrated Research Program on Medicinal Plants (NIRPROMP).
The Tuklas Lunas Program builds on what had been started by NIRPROMP in refining the DOST-PCHRD’s drug discovery and development program with two tracks: the drug and herbal track.
To implement the program, 28 Tuklas Lunas Centers (TLDCs) all over the country were established, each research institutions working on the unique resources of each region.
The 28 research implementing institutions are distributed as follows: 17 TLDCs in Luzon, six in Visayas and five in Mindanao. Some of the most advanced projects under the program include university-industry partnerships.
Pharmalytics Corporation, working with the De La Salle University Medical Health Sciences Institute (DLSU-HSI), is now undertaking clinical trials for the Dengue Herbal Drug to determine the safety combination of three plants identified to have effect against the dengue virus.
Meanwhile, UP Manila, UP Diliman, Pharmalytics Corporation, Herbanext Laboratories and the Pascual Lab focus on formulating standardized dosage forms from 28 plants for possible anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-gout and anti-hypertensive applications.
Drug discovery and development is one of the priority areas for health research set under the National Unified Health Research Agenda (NUHRA) and the Harmonized National Health Research and Development Agenda (HNRDA).