Cut red tape: DOH, FDA urged to help local pharma companies

By Billy Begas

Deputy Speaker Bernadette Herrera called on the Department of Health (DOH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to cut the red tape to allow more pharmaceutical companies to produce drugs locally.

Herrera, who is one of the authors of the Anti-Red Tape Act (ARTA) of 2018, was “disheartened” when she learned that the FDA had a massive backlog of drug approval applications.

The Philippine Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industry Inc. (PCPI) and the Philippine Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) in a recent congressional inquiry said that as of March 29, a total of 1,025 applications for certificate of product registration, 50 applications for license to operate, and 381 applications for automatic renewal have been pending with the FDA since 2015.

“So, talagang for someone in government and one of the authors of ARTA, and you hear this, talagang iinit ang ulo mo. And we really question, why?” Herrera said.

Herrera 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.

“Using the national guidelines is something that would free up the process in the FDA without sacrificing the efficacy and quality of the medicines that the pharmaceutical industry will produce,” Herrera added.

Herrera and Speaker Lord Allan Jay Velasco are working to give local pharmaceutical industry access to soft loans under the proposed Bayanihan 3 law.

She said the loans could be sourced from the remaining funds under Bayanihan 2 law.

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 added. “We need to survive as a country and we cannot survive without our local pharma industry, and nakikita po namin ang inyong importansya.”

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)