A lawmaker has pushed for the swift passage of a measure that would impose tougher penalties like life imprisonment against those responsible for the large-scale manufacture, sale, and possession of counterfeit pharmaceutical products.
Rep. Brian Raymund Yamsuan of party-list Bicol Saro issued 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 aimed at weeding out counterfeit medicines from the market 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, the House Committee on Public Order and Safety member said the campaign should be complemented by a measure that would add teeth to existing laws.
House Bill (HB) 3984, which Yamsuan co-authored, provides 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.”
The bill defines counterfeit pharmaceutical products as those that do not contain the amounts of ingredients as claimed, with wrong ingredients, without active ingredients, or with less than 80 percent of the active ingredient it purports to possess. They also refer to products that are deliberately and fraudulently misrepresented.
Administrative penalties under the measure include fines of P100,000 to P5 million, along with the suspension or revocation of the license to do business. Meanwhile, criminal punishment includes prison terms ranging from not less than 6 months and 1 day to 15 years.
If the amount of counterfeit pharmaceutical products involved is at least P1 million, the offense will be deemed as an act of economic sabotage punishable with life imprisonment and a fine ranging from P5 million to P10 million.
Additionally, life imprisonment and a fine of P500,000 to P5 million is the penalty proposed under the bill if the counterfeited product is determined to be the proximate cause of death of a victim who unknowingly bought and took it.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been regularly reminding the public to remain vigilant in buying pharmaceutical products, especially online.
Last year, the FDA issued a warning to the public on the consumption of counterfeit versions of mefenamic acid (Ponstan), ibuprofen (Medicol Advance), loperamide hydrochloride (Diatabs), aluminum hydroxide/ magnesium hydroxide/ simeticone (Kremil-S), ibuprofen/paracetamol (Alaxan FR), phenylephrine hydrochloride/ chlorphenamine maleate/ paracetamol (Neozep Forte), among others.
In the 2024 Special 301 Report of the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the Philippines was named as among the “leading sources of counterfeit medicines distributed globally.”