Solon wants House to step into Pfizer-Unilab issue

By Charlie V. Manalo

11/01/2009

A lawmaker yesterday urged the House of Representatives to look into the ongoing row between local drug company United Laboratories Inc. (Unilab) and transnational pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. over the right to produce and sell a maintenance drug for patients afflicted with cardiovascular diseases.

Unilab filed last July 9 a petition with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) for the cancellation of Philippine Patent 29149 for Atorvastatin that is being marketed by Pfizer under the brand name Lipitor.

Pfizer’s patent prevents the creation and marketing of any similar drug and essentially gives the company a monopoly hold over the maintenance drug.

“There is basis to say that Pfizer’s application for a patent in the Philippines is exploitative as it tends to abuse the patent system. Pfizer may be unjustly extending its monopoly on the drug by introducing minor modifications just to extend the life of its patent, a practice known as ‘evergreening,’” Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo said.

He said by seeking to monopolize the production and sale of a maintenance drug that is crucial to the survival of many Filipinos with heart diseases, Pfizer is doing a great disservice to the people. “It wants its own product Lipitor to be the only product on the market, but Lipitor’s exorbitant price is enough to cause heart attacks,” he said.

Lipitor costs P34.45, P39.13 and P50.50 per 10, 20 and 40 milligram (mg) tablets, respectively. Since Lipitor is to be taken at least once daily, the average cost to a patient is at least P34.45-P50.50 a day.

In the meantime, Unilab is marketing Avamax, its generic version of Atorvastatin, at a price 30 percent cheaper than Lipitor. It sells for P25 per 10-mg tablet; P30 for 20 milligrams; and P35 for 40 milligrams.

Ocampo said the issue falls under the jurisdiction of the Cheaper Medicines Act, which was enacted specifically to bring down prices of medicine and make it more accessible to the public. The law, which he co-authored in the House, also aims to put an end to patent abuse in the industry.

“This is a case involving a local drug company and a transnational firm: a David vs Goliath case. It’s a test of the government’s determination to reduce drug prices. It also has serious implications on the country’s economic sovereignty and how our own industries hold out against foreign competition, and how all this impacts on the public,” Ocampo said.

According to industry reports, Lipitor was the largest-selling drug in the world in 2006, earning its producers $12.9 billion in sales in the same year alone. In the Philippines, it earned more than P850 million in sales within the period May 1, 2008-April 30, 2009.

In 2008, Lipitor sales internationally were at $13 billion, with about $15 million coming from the Philippines. Since the time it was launched in the country, Lipitor sales have been at $162 million.

“Congress should also investigate reports that Pfizer and Warner-Lambert have threatened many local drugstores not to carry such medicine other than theirs. This is predatory business practice that without a doubt could mean the life and death of many Filipinos suffering heart ailments. If there is truth to these reports, sanctions should be laid down against Pfizer Inc.,” Ocampo said.

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