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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Marcos tells FDA: Revise policies to allow local use of foreign common drugs

Marcos tells FDA: Revise policies to allow local use of foreign common drugs

Published Feb 13, 2024 06:15 am

President Marcos has ordered concerned agencies to amend existing policies to allow foreign common drugs to come into the country in a bid to bring the prices of medicine down.

BBM FDA meeting.jpg
President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. presides over a sectoral meeting with the Food and Drug Administration at the Malacañan Palace on Feb. 13, 2024. (Photo courtesy of PPA/KJ Rosales)

Marcos issued the directive to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a sectoral meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 13.

According to FDA Director General Samuel Zacate, the President directed them to continue streamlining the country's drug regulatory processes with the aim of lowering the prices of generic drugs and speeding up the process of registering new common drugs.

He also told them to focus on amending the Administrative Order 67 (series of 1989) "to look into allowing foreign common drugs to come in with the intention to bring prices down."

"As of now in the FDA, we already have formulated several policies para makatulong sa ating (to help our)stakeholders and one of that is the bible of the drug application process which is the AO No. 67. It will pave the way for the application per category so that the stakeholders, the local drug manufacturers, and the drug importers will have the proper way of how to register their products," Zacate said in a Palace briefing.

The Chief Executive also encouraged the establishment of a "pharma zone" to make the drug application process more accessible and efficient like a one-stop shop.

"We tackled in a sectoral meeting the establishment of the pharma zones. It will give a more drug accessible to those selected three pharma zones by the PEZA (Philippine Economic Zone Authority),"Zacate said.

"So that pagpasok ng isang gamot, diretso testing, diretso registration para po magkaroon ng mabilis at malaki ang malawak ng coverage (when a medicine comes in, it will directly go to testing, then registration, so that we will be able to have a fast and wide-range coverage)," Zacate added.

Marcos also tasked both the FDA and Department of Agriculture (DA) to address the issues of work delegation in order to approve the necessary drugs for Avian and African Swine Flu as he stressed the urgency of using veterinary vaccines as this might affect the country's agriculture and nutrition needs.

Zacate said they are already talking with the DA to forge a joint administrative order (JAO) for veterinary vaccines.

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