FOUR out of every 10 Filipinos fail to fight illness because they live on less than $2 a day, which makes it almost impossible for them to afford medicines, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III says.

The access to drugs of the poorest of the poor is so limited that it would cost them half the family’s monthly income, for instance, to secure medication that would lower blood cholesterol for a month, he says.

“Even where cheaper generic drugs are available, the poor are simply too poor to spend their income on medicine.”

But Duque says the government is determined to provide the poor with more access to cheap medicine and medical services, and mainly through the Health Department’s Fourmula 1 for Health and the Affordable and Quality Medicines Act of 2008.

He says Fourmula 1 ensures the delivery of essential medicines to the poor, while the Cheap Medicines Law will bring in affordable generic medicines from abroad and strengthen the Bureau of Food and Drugs.

“Access to medicines is everybody’s business, and all of us need to be engaged and committed,” Duque said.

He thanked GlaxoSmithKline for bringing down the prices of its medicines.

“GSK has long been a prime example of how to do good business while balancing the need to respond to the public health needs of the developing world,” Duque said.

GlaxoSmithKline had announced a 30- to 50-percent reduction in the prices of its medicines effective March 1, including those for pneumonia and other bacterial infections, ulcer, bronchitis, nausea and vomiting. In November 2008 it reduced the price of its cervical cancer vaccine by 60 percent.

Meanwhile, an official yesterday doubted that American pharmaceutical firms would lobby for sanctions against the Philippines for its passage of the Cheap Medicines Law.

“We seriously doubt that any lobby to have us downgraded as an IPR [Intellectual Property Rights] offender [on account of the new law] would succeed,” Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas said.

“The initial feedback we got is that even the Obama administration is inclined to encourage the liberalized importation of low-priced medicines from other countries, and mainly Canada.” Macon Ramos Araneta and Roy Pelovello