The local pharmaceutical manufacturing industry needs to be strengthened so that it can improve the country’s access to quality, affordable, safe and effective mediciness, according to Bagong Henerasyon party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera.
Addressing members of the Philippine Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industry Inc., Herrera said the role of local drug manufacturers has never been more important during the pandemic when nations scramble for life-saving drugs necessary to combat COVID-19. “It is already the survival of our country and we need to tap our own resources, and this is the direction we would like to take,” she said.
“We need to survive as a country and we cannot survive without our local pharma industry, and that we see its importance,” she added, referring to Filipino drug manufacturers.
Congress is now drafting a bill that would strengthen pharmaceutical production in the Philippines, Herrera said.
She said she wanted the local industry to contribute in this undertaking by helping lawmakers find a way to reduce the country’s reliance on imported medicines.
“I think we all want a self-sufficient industry. We want to be reliant on our resources here in the country. We should look inside and not look outside,” she raised.
To encourage the local pharma industry to move up the value chain, Herrera said the Department of Health and the Food and Drug Administration must cut the red tape for Filipino drug manufacturers, she noted.
She said there is an urgent need to revert to the national guidelines on the registration of pharmaceutical products and suspend the implementation of stringent ASEAN guidelines that have made it extremely difficult for drug manufacturers to register their products in the Philippines.