| A LEADING international pharmaceutical company has offered a cheap alternative to high-priced medicines in the Philippines.
Sandoz, a member of the German-based pharmaceutical giant Novartis, offers a line of generic medicines costing about "40 to 60 percent" less than their branded counterparts.
The products include antibiotics, anti-hypertensives, drugs for diabetes and tuberculosis, and cholesterol-lowering medicines.
"What Sandoz offers to Filipinos are not just globally accepted medicines at much lower prices, but medicines that have been tested and passed the standards of international regulatory agencies," said company coordinator Avinash Potnis in a statement released during a press conference Wednesday.
Potnis noted that the generic drugs being offered by Sandoz have all passed the standards set by the United States Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency, and the local Bureau of Food and Drugs.
"What we are bringing here are the same medicines available to patients in Europe and the US," he said.
The Sandoz offer came amid an aggressive government campaign to bring down the prices of medicines in the Philippines.
The state-run Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) earlier announced it would be importing some P700 million worth of low-cost medicines.
According to PITC head Roberto Pagdanganan, the company imported P400 million worth of medicines in 2005.
PTIC drug imports are sold in Botika ng Bayan (People's Pharmacy) outlets around the country, currently numbering 1,211. There are also 7,100 Botika ng Barangay (Village Pharmacy) branches that carry low-priced medicines.
The PITC is apparently pursuing its program for cheaper medicines despite a lawsuit from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.
The US-based Pfizer sued the PITC over the latter's attempts to import a cheaper version of Pfizer's patented, anti-hypertensive drug Norvasc. | 
