Philippines cuts drug prices 50 percent

MANILA, Philippines, July 28 (UPI) -- The Philippines ordered a 50 percent price cut on five key drugs after pharmaceutical companies failed to lower the prices on their own, officials said Tuesday.

The compulsory price cuts, taking effect Aug. 15, are on two cancer treatments -- doxorubicin and cytarabine -- plus the popular antihypertensive amlodipine, the antibiotic azithromycin and cholesterol-lowering atorvastatin, officials said.

Doxorubicin is marketed under the name Adriamycin and cytarabine as Cytosar-U and Tarabine PFS.

Amlodipine, produced by No. 1 drug firm Pfizer Inc., is marketed in the Philippines as Dailyvasc and as Norvasc in many other countries.

Azithromycin is known by a variety of names, including Zithromax. Atorvastatin is known as Lipitor.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in her State of the Nation address Monday the drug companies, which had been charging prices the government considered exorbitant, had agreed to lower prices on 16 of 21 "essential medicines. But because they didn't drop prices on the other five, "we are placing (the) other drugs under a maximum retail price," the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.

The price cuts affect drugstore and hospital sales, officials said. Senior citizens will continue to receive a 20 percent discount on top of the 50 percent price cuts.

Compliance will be monitored by government agencies and local government offices, officials said.

The pharmaceutical industry estimates it will lose $146 million to $208 million a year in sales, industry spokesman Reiner Gloor said in a statement.

Nearly a third of the Philippine population lives on less than $1 a day, government statistics indicate.