Bicol Saro Partylist Representative Brian Raymund Yamsuan on Wednesday, May 1, pressed for the passage of the bill that would impose stringent penalties, including life imprisonment, against those responsible for the large-scale manufacture, sale, and possession of counterfeit pharmaceutical products.
Yamsuan made the call after the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPPHIL) and the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP) recently launched a joint campaign that seeks to counter the rise in the sale of fake medicines in online platforms and promoting affordable healthcare innovations.
“This partnership between the government and the pharmaceutical sector will help achieve our collective goal of protecting Filipinos from the serious dangers to health posed by the sale of fake and substandard meds, especially online,” Yamsuan said.
“However, this campaign should be complemented by a measure that would put more teeth to existing laws that penalize the manufacture, sale and distribution of these counterfeit products,” Yamsuan said.
Yamsuan is referring to House Bill (HB) No. 3984, of which he is a co-author. The measure aims to strengthen the campaign against counterfeit pharmaceutical products and classify their large-scale manufacture, sale, distribution and possession as acts of economic sabotage.
“Our porous borders and easy access to goods online make our country vulnerable to the entry and use of counterfeit products, including medicines. While authorities continue to work tirelessly to stop pharmaceutical crimes, we must send a strong message, though measures like House Bill 3984, that those responsible behind them deserve to be severely punished,” the lawmaker pointed out.
The bill primarily seeks to impose both administrative and criminal penalties to those found guilty of the “manufacture, importation, distribution, sale, offering for sale, donation, trafficking, brokering, exportation, or possession of counterfeit pharmaceutical products.”
Administrative penalties include fines of P100,000 up to P5 million and the suspension or revocation of business licenses; criminal punishment, on the other hand, include prison terms ranging from not less than six (6) months and one (1) day to 15 years.
Under the bill, if the amount of bogus pharmaceutical products involve at least P1 million, the offense shall be deemed as an act of economic sabotage punishable with life imprisonment and a fine ranging from P5 million to P10 million.
The bill also proposes a penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of P500,000 to P5 million if the counterfeited product is found to be the proximate cause of death of a victim who unknowingly bought and took it.
Yamsuan observed that while the decades-old Republic Act No. 8203 or the Special Law on Counterfeit Drugs already prohibits the sale of fake medicines, this was weakened by the enactment of other health-related laws that have provided inconsistent definitions of the word “drugs.”