JAMSANI, AIRA K.

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Republic Act No. 9502

AN ACT PROVIDING FOR CHEAPER AND QUALITY MEDICINES, AMENDING FOR
THE PURPOSE REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8293 OR THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
CODE, REPUBLIC ACT NO. 6675 OR THE GENERICS ACT OF 1988, AND
REPUBLIC ACT NO. 5921 OR THE PHARMACY LAW, AND FOR OTHER
PURPOSES

WHAT IS RA 9502?
On June 6 2008, the president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed into law Republic Act
no 9052 entitled Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicine Act of 2008.

OBJECTIVES:
R.A. 9502 was intended to achieve two correlated goals:
1. Reduce the cost of medicines — especially those that are commonly bought by
the poor — to 50% of their 2001 prices and make these available nationwide;
and
2. Require and ensure the production of adequate supply, distribution, use and
acceptance of medicines identified by their generic names, which are priced
much lower than patented drugs mainly produced by multinational corporations.

Cheaper Medicines Law - The enactment in 2008 of the “Universally Accessible

Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act” (R.A. 9502) and in 2009 of the “Food and Drug
Administration Act'' (R.A. 9711), were important milestones in laying the foundation for
improving the quality and reducing the prices of medicines.

The “Cheaper Medicines Act'' confers on the President the authority to regulate the
price of medicines and drugs and empowers the DOH Secretary to establish a drug
price monitoring and regulation system. Pursuant to this Act, the President issued
Executive Order (E.O.) 821 which was made effective on August 15, 2009, prescribing
the maximum retail prices (MRP) – also known as government mediated access prices
(GMAP) – for selected medicines that address some diseases which are common
causes of morbidity and mortality in the country. The E.O. covered only five active
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pharmaceutical ingredients including some antihypertensive, antibiotics, and anti-

neoplastics/anti-cancer.

PURPOSE
— It is the policy of the State to protect public health and, when the public interest or
circumstances of extreme urgency so require, it shall adopt appropriate measures to
promote and ensure access to affordable quality drugs and medicines for all. Pursuant
to the attainment of this general policy, an effective competition policy in the supply
and demand of quality affordable drugs and medicines is recognized by the State as
a primary instrument. In the event that full competition is not effective, the State
recognizes as a reserve instrument the regulation of prices of drugs and medicines,
with clear accountability by the implementing authority as mandated in this Act, as one
of the means to also promote and ensure access to quality affordable medicines.

SECTION 23. List of Drugs and Medicines that are Subject to Price Regulation . –
The list of drugs and medicines that are subject to price regulation shall include,
inter alia :

(a) All drugs and medicines indicated for treatment of chronic illnesses
and life threatening conditions, such as, but not limited to, endocrine
disorders, e.g., diabetes mellitus; gastrointestinal disorders, e.g., peptic
ulcer; urologic disorders, e.g., benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH);
cardiovascular diseases, e.g., hypertension; pulmonary diseases, e.g.,
pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB), asthma; auto‐immune diseases, e.g.,
systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE); skin diseases, e.g., psoriasis; neuro‐
psychiatric disorders; other infectious diseases, e.g., human
immunodeficiency virus‐acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV‐AIDS);
and other conditions such as organ transplants and neoplasm;
(b) Drugs and medicines indicated for prevention of diseases, e.g.,
vaccines, immunoglobulin, anti‐sera;
(c) Drugs and medicines indicated for prevention of pregnancy, e.g., oral
contraceptives;
(d) Anesthetic agents;
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(e) Intravenous fluids;

(f) Drugs and medicines that are included in the Philippine National Drug
Formulary (PNDF) Essential Drug List; and

(g) All other drugs and medicines which, from time to time, the Secretary
of the Department of Health determines to be in need of price regulation.

SECTION 17. Drugs and Medicines Price Regulation Authority of the President of
the Philippines . – The President of the Philippines, upon recommendation of the
Secretary of the Department of Health, shall have the power to impose maximum
retail prices over any or all drugs and medicines as enumerated in Section 23. The
power to impose maximum retail prices over drugs and medicines shall be exercised
within such a period of time as the situation may warrant as determined by the
President of the Philippines. No court, except the Supreme Court of the Philippines,
shall issue any temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction or preliminary
mandatory injunction that will prevent the immediate execution of the exercise of this
power of the President of the Philippines.
JAMSANI, AIRA K.
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