Department of Health and national partners and stakeholders celebrate the Generic Awareness Month through the Virtual Philippine Generics Summit to encourage the strengthening of local pharmaceutical generic industry

Press Release | Manila, September 23, 2021

(Day 1 of the Philippine Generics Summit 2021)

The Department of Health – Pharmaceutical Division celebrated the 33^rd year of passing into law of the Generics Act of 1988 through the conduct of a 2-day Virtual Generics Summit Webinar Series on September 22-23 via the Webex platform, which was also livestreamed on the DOH Youtube page. With the theme, “Paigtingin ang Suplay, Generics Gawing Abot-Kamay,” the observance of the Generics Awareness Month this year aims to increase public awareness on the global and local directions and efforts of both the government and private sectors to strengthen the local capacity of the pharmaceutical industry for manufacturing supply of generic medicines, particularly those that are critical to respond to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and other future health emergencies.

The national government recognized the challenges that the country experienced in sourcing drugs, vaccines, and other essential supplies hampering the pandemic response as the country’s pharmaceutical and medical device supply is largely import-dependent. With this, the webinar series highlighted the activities, policies, and programs being implemented by relevant government agencies, the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare providers, and consumer groups to respond and address the challenges and to strengthen the local capacity to manufacture quality, effective and affordable health commodities to meet the supply needs amid the pandemic.

“As we commemorate the signing of the Generics Act, we advocate for the strengthening of the local capacity for manufacturing supply of generics to contribute to the achievement of the global goal of ensuring adequate, equitable, affordable, and efficient supply of health goods, particularly those needed to respond to public health threats and emergencies.” Health Secretary Francisco Duque said in his welcome message which was read by Undersecretary Charade Mercado-Grande.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) applauded the DOH efforts and theme for the Generic Awareness Month celebration as these are in line with the goal of ensuring universal healthcare for all and pushing for measures that will provide access to affordable medicines especially for the poorest in the society.

The WHO supports the promotion of generic medicines as a vital strategy to address challenges in affordability and accessibility of essential medicines and to improve medicine access. “Essential medicines can save lives, reduce suffering, and improve health but to do so they must be available and affordable, of good quality and be used properly. The promotion of generic medicines has been an important strategy to improve medicine access.” Said Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe, WHO Representative to the Philippines.

“With the cooperation of all sectors concerned, our generics industry will be able to contribute significantly to the health and recovery needs, especially of the marginalized sectors. By working on our capacity to locally produce drugs including vaccines, we can create resilient and pandemic-proof health system.” Said Secretary Ramon Lopez of the DTI.

(Day 2 of the Philippine Generics Summit 2021)

The DOH enjoined the continuous collaboration and support of relevant government agencies, private sector partners and the Filipino consumers to promote the use of generic medicines, to strengthen local capacity to meet health needs, and to find ways to adopt to the situation and move forward to the better normal.

The Generics Awareness Month is observed annually every month of September. To strengthen and bring the campaign closer to all the stakeholders during this new normal set up brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the DOH organized the virtual summit and maximized the use of online platforms to disseminate advocacy materials to improve awareness of the general public on generic medicines.