PHARMACEUTICAL and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP) president Dr. Diana Edralin urged PhilHealth to expand medicine coverage, improve drug supply, and speed up review processes to make treatments more accessible to Filipinos.
“So it’s not just hospitalization, not just diagnostics, but medicines also need to be included in the packages they develop,” Edralin said on the sidelines of the forum “Breaking Barriers to Medicine Access: Kalusugang Abot-Kamay nina Juan at Juana,” at The Manila Hotel.
She said PHAP is committed to supporting the healthcare agenda of PhilHealth and the Department of Health, including efforts to improve medicine access under the zero-balance billing program.
PHAP, she added, is willing to share its data, expertise, and systems to help expedite processes related to medicine access.
She cited the need to cover medicine expenses for different types of breast cancer.
“There are many types of breast cancer. So what’s in the formulary is only for HER2-positive types. There are still many HER2-negative ones, there’s triple negative. So there are many kinds of breast cancer. Therefore, the medicines available there are lacking,” she said in Filipino and English.
Edralin said bulk procurement is a way to lower medicine prices.
“So that we can further lower the price, it really needs to go into the formulary so it can be ordered in bulk and the price can be brought down,” she said.
Edralin said pharmacy courses should be promoted while exploring ways to address the shortage of pharmacists in the country.
“But while we are doing that, we also need to find efficient ways to address that gap so that it doesn’t lead to, again, fewer Filipinos having access to medicines,” she said.