E-DRUG: Philippines and awards for good governance in Medicines
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[The Philippines Dept of Health, WHO and MeTA have launched a "National
awards for good governance in Medicines" campaign. This campaign aims to
promote more transparency in the procurement of medicines in the
Philippines, where 81 provinces and 2000+ health facilities buy
medicines. For details, see www.doh.gov.ph/ggmawards
The Technical Secretariat National Awards for Good Governance in
Medicines can be contacted through Crispinita A.Valdez, E-mail:
ggmawards@doh.gov.ph and Tel: +632 711-6744.
The WHO study quoted below in the Philippine newspaper is part of its
Good Governance for Medicines programme. More info available at
http://www.who.int/medicines/ggm/en/index.html
Copied as fair use. WB]
http://www.mb.com.ph/issues/2008/08/07/MAIN20080807131851.html#
WHO study cites corruption in world's medicines procurement
By ANGIE CHUI
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Source: Manila Bulletin online, Main News
A World Health Organization (WHO) study on measuring transparency in
medicine registration, selection and procurement indicates that 10 to 25
percent of the world's $ 3-trillion annual spending on health services
goes to corruption.
The WHO study which cited figures from Transparency International showed
that the unethical practices prevalent in the procurement process range
from simple gift giving, promotion of conflicting interests, differing
priorities, diversion of medicines to the private sector, falsification
of efficiency safety data and unethical promotion of medicines.
The study was disclosed by Dr. Guitelle Baghdadi Sabeti, WHO technical
officer on Policy Access and Rational Use of Medicines Policy and
Standards, who said that $ 600 billion of the world's combined
expenditures for medical spending of $ 3 trillion or 10 to 25 percent of
the procurement spending is lost to corruption, while 2/3 of the
medicines are lost through corruption and fraud in hospitals.
Low quality trials, exaggerated benefits of treatments as well as
bribery of officials in regulation were also cited as among the reasons
why unsafe medicines are circulating in the market resulting to
complications and even death.
Based on the study, corruption is attributed to inappropriate incentive
structure, conflict of interest, and imbalance of players to make
independent assessment and make informed judgment.
Sabeti introduced three key phases in implementing good governance for
medicines which will help reduce the incidence of corruption. These are
national assessment of transparency and potential vulnerability to
corruption, development of a national program on good governance for
medicines and the implementation of the good governance for medicines
program developed by WHO.
Out of 27 involved in the Good Governance Program, 13 countries are in
the first phase, ten are in the second stage while four countries,
including the Philippines, are already in the third and implementation
stage.
However, health officials in the country remain unfazed by staggering
figures of corruption because even WHO acknowledges that the Philippines
is at the forefront of the worldwide thrust for good governance in
medicine.
During yesterday's launching of the national awards for good governance,
Health Undersecretary Alexander Padilla cited the passage of the Cheaper
Medicines Bill, along with the government's thrust for health sector
reform with strategic thrusts to achieve three primary strategic goal of
better health outcomes, more responsive health systems, and more
equitable health financing.
Padilla also said that the government is at the forefront of high
quality generic pharmaceutical products, expansion of pharmaceutical
distribution networks such as local and national government hospitals,
pharmacies, NGO-owned pharmacies, Botika ng Bayan and Barangay.
Norms of behaviour for employees and officials, policy and rules on gift
giving, rules on internal whistle blowing and reporting, rules on
disclosure, blacklisting and publication of blacklisted companies are
also being implemented at the Department of Health, he said.
Continuous identification of local and foreign sources of low prices
drugs and the development of mechanisms for pooled procurement among
health facilities and across LGUs to realize economies of scale such as
inter local health zones are also being undertaken by the national
government, Padilla said.
Former Health Secretary Alberto Romualdez, chairman of the Medicine
Transparency Alliance (META), stressed that corruption in the
procurement of medicines does not only happen in the government
exclusively.
He said that corruption is a process that involves also suppliers,
distributors, and other parties that adhere to beyond normal practices.
He said that although their group is new, they are set to conduct a
study on how much of the budget for drugs go to corruption.
He, however, warned that this is a tedious process that may take some
time to complete.
One of the indicators of corruption is the lower prices of the same
drugs in other parts of Asia whose economies are even more advanced than
the Philippines, he said.
META Vice Chairman Roberto Pagdanganan said that if estimates from
experts are to be applied, then roughly P75 billion of the country's
P150 billion budget for the procurement of medicines is lost to
corruption.