Palace Slammed For Cheaper Medicine Shortage

Manila – Nine months after the Universally Accepted Cheaper and Quality Medicines Law was enacted, the government is yet to implement it, declares its principal author Sen. Mar Roxas at a Senate hearing in light of a possible Influenza A(H1N1) outbreak in the country. The law mandates that the Health Department set retail price ceilings for medicines but the agency has not done so. “It seems the government is in cahoots with the big drug companies,” says Roxas, “that’s why they are not much interested in having the laws implemented.”