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THE
year’s report by the international nonprofit group
Global Alliance for TB Drug Development showed that
Filipinos with tuberculosis prefer to be treated by
private physicians rather than go to public health
facilities.
“In . .
.the
Philippines
despite significant public-sector programs, many
patients prefer to seek diagnosis and treatment in the
private sector for reasons that include perceived
quality of care and maintenance of anonymity,” said the
report.
The
Philippines was identified by the World Health
Organization as one of 22 countries being “high [TB]
burden” and among the 22 are
Brazil,
China, India, Indonesia and South Africa. “Together,
these countries carry approximately 50 percent of the
world’s TB burden.”
Thus,
the preference for private treatment in the Philippines
has brought the country into being a “first-line market,
valued at $31.1 million, [that] is almost entirely
private.”
One of
the reasons for this preference is that, “in those
countries with large private-sector markets, like India
and the Philippines, there is a slow trend of patients
moving from private to public-sector treatment, largely
due to government implementation of WHO-recommended
‘public-private mix’ programs.”
The TB
drug market in the
Philippines,
according to the report titled “Pathway to Patients:
Charting the Dynamics of the Global TB Drug Market,” is
valued at P1.5 billion and predominantly private.
The
report studied 10 countries to acquire what the New
York-based TB Alliance said is the first comprehensive
analysis of how today’s TB drugs—categorized as first
line and second line according to treatment—reach
patients.
The
Philippine public-health sector treats about 135,000
patients per year, and accounts for $2.16 million in
drugs annually.
Second
only to the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, TB
remains the leading infectious killer of adults
worldwide, said the TB Alliance report.
Citing
WHO estimates, it said that although curable in this
epoch, tuberculosis “continues to kill someone somewhere
in the world every 20 seconds—about 4,400 people every
day, or 1.6 million in 2005 alone.”
The TB
Alliance said that in the past two years, nearly a
quarter of a million Filipinos (239,459) were expected
to have acquired TB, adding to the existing 378,094
cases reported in 2004.
These
are Filipinos taking one or more of the six existing
drugs in the market manufactured by Wyeth Philippines
Inc. and United Laboratories and generic drug makers.
First-line drugs manufactured by Wyeth under the brand
name Myrin cost under $0.23 (P11) per pill, while
Unilab’s Tritab and Quadtab brands sell at $0.20 (P9.60)
and $0.18 (P8.64), respectively.
According to the TB Alliance report, the cost of drugs
in the private sector for full-course treatments
(Categories I, II and III) remains high from $135.36 (I
and III, at P6, 497.28 each) and $315.84 (II, at
P15,160.32 on S$1=P48 exchange rate).
Category
III drugs are bought via public bidding by local
government units. The TB Alliance report estimates the
market value of Category III drugs in the Philippines at
$908,865 (P43.626 million).
“The
second-line market, which accounts for less than
$100,000 per year, is dominated by public-sector
expenditures [approximately $58,600].” |
