WITH the sale of fake medicines in online platforms on the rise, Bicol Saro Partylist Rep. Brian Raymund Yamsuan has pushed for the swift passage of a measure that would impose tougher penalties, including life imprisonment, against those responsible for the large-scale manufacture, sale, and possession of counterfeit pharmaceutical products.

Yamsuan issued the call after the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPPHIL) and the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP) recently launched a joint campaign aimed at weeding out counterfeit medicines from the market and promoting affordable healthcare innovations.

“This partnership between the government and the pharmaceutical sector will help achieve our collective goal of protecting Filipinos from the serious dangers to health posed by the sale of fake and substandard meds, especially online. However, this campaign should be complemented by a measure that would put more teeth to existing laws that penalize the manufacture, sale and distribution of these counterfeit products,” Yamsuan said.

Yamsuan said House Bill (HB) 3984, of which he is a co-author, will strengthen the campaign against counterfeit pharmaceutical products and classify their large-scale manufacture, sale, distribution and possession as acts of economic sabotage.

“Our porous borders and easy access to goods online make our country vulnerable to the entry and use of counterfeit products, including medicines. While authorities continue to work tirelessly to stop pharmaceutical crimes, we must send a strong message, though measures like House Bill 3984, that those responsible behind them deserve to be severely punished,” Yamsuan said.

HB 3984 provides both administrative and criminal penalties to those found guilty of the “manufacture, importation, distribution, sale, offering for sale, donation, trafficking, brokering, exportation, or possession of counterfeit pharmaceutical products.”

Under the bill, “counterfeit pharmaceutical products” refer to those that do not contain the amounts of ingredients as claimed; with wrong ingredients; without active ingredients; or with less than 80 percent of the active ingredient it purports to possess as distinguished from an adulterated pharmaceutical product including reduction or loss of efficacy due to expiration.”

They also refer to products that are deliberately and fraudulently misrepresented with respect to their identity, composition and/or source.

The administrative penalties under the measure include fines of P100,000 to P5 million and the suspension or revocation of the license to do business; while the criminal punishment include prison terms ranging from not less than 6 months and 1 day to 15 years.

If the amount of counterfeit pharmaceutical products involve at least P1 million, this offense shall be deemed as an act of economic sabotage punishable with life imprisonment and a fine ranging from P5 million to P10 million.

Life imprisonment and a fine of P500,000 to P5 million is the penalty proposed under the bill if the counterfeited product is determined to be the proximate cause of death of a victim who unknowingly bought and took it.

Drug counterfeiting has been steadily increasing over the years. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been regularly reminding the public to remain vigilant in buying pharmaceutical products, especially online.

Last year, the FDA issued a warning to the public on the consumption of counterfeit versions of mefenamic acid (Ponstan), ibuprofen (Medicol Advance), loperamide hydrochloride (Diatabs), aluminum hydroxide/ magnesium hydroxide/ simeticone (Kremil-S), ibuprofen/paracetamol (Alaxan FR), phenylephrine hydrochloride/ chlorphenamine maleate/ paracetamol (Neozep Forte), among others.

In the 2024 Special 301 Report of the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the Philippines was named as among the “leading sources of counterfeit medicines distributed globally.”

Yamsuan said that while the decades-old Republic Act 8203 or the Special Law on Counterfeit Drugs prohibits the sale of fake medicines, this has been weakened by the enactment of other health-related laws that have provided inconsistent definitions of the word “drugs”.

He said that in one case, the Supreme Court stated that RA 9502, or the Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act nullifies the purpose of RA 8203, making the latter lose all its meaning and function.

HB 3984 and other similar measures have been consolidated into a substitute bill and submitted to the House Committee on Health for approval. Its authors include Congressmen LRay Villafuerte, Miguel Luis Villafuerte and Tsuyoshi Horibata, all representing Camarines Sur.