Prompted by a complaint of a group of stroke victims that a big drugstore chain has refused to sell a cheap anti-hypertension drug, Sen. Mar Roxas has asked the Senate to pursue further investigation into “unfair trade practices” and “bullying” of pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, to force Filipinos to buy its more expensive medicine exclusively, a press release from his office said.

Roxas, primary author of the Cheaper Medicines Act, or Republic Act 9502, that provided measures so the government can cut drug prices drastically to benefit consumers, has been intervening with the legislature's investigative powers to make Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies lower their prices to match those in other countries, the press release said.

In Senate Resolution No. 1483, Roxas cited a complaint of actor Subas Herrero, a stroke victim and diabetes patient, on behalf of a group of stroke victims that Mercury Drugstore does not sell the generic version of Pfizer's Lipitor brand of anti-hypertension drug because of threats of legal action from the American pharmaceutical company.

Pfizer has sued United Laboratories Inc. which manufacture the cheaper anti-hypertension drug Avamax for allegedly violating the patent on the drug Atorvastatin calcium, the press release said.

It has also threatened drugstores nationwide to stop selling Avamax even if it is 50 percent cheaper than the popular brand Lipitor, the press release added.

Roxas, chairman of the Senate trade and commerce committee, said that it falls under the Senate power to investigate possible unfair trade practices of Pfizer and other multinational pharmaceutical companies that threaten Filipinos' access to cheaper but quality medicines.

Pfizer's demand from retail drugstores to stop selling the generic version of Atorvastatin Calcium and to forever desist from promoting the same can be seen as a means to prevent the manufacture, marketing and sale of competing or rival products like the generic version of Atorvastatin Calcium under the guise of intellectual property protection despite the provision in RA 9502, which disallows extensions of patents for new users,” the resolution said.

The Cheaper Medicines law “specifically amended pertinent provisions of the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines and liberalized the application of intellectual property laws, in order to promote wider competition, with the intention of lowering the prices of medicines,” Roxas said in the press release.*

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