by Jon Dy and Cheryl Argent
On Wednesday, the 23rd of September 2015, St Luke’s College of Medicine welcomed its students and faculty to its 2nd general assembly featuring Attorney Edmund Jason Baranda, managing partner of Baranda and Associates for a talk about Intellectual property rights.
Atty. Baranda graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from University of the Philippines and a Master of Law from University of Michigan Law School. He specializes in intellectual property law, which was the topic of his discussion entitled, “Basics of Intellectual Property Rights”.
He provided a detailed discussion on the international patency guidelines including the differences between local and international patency laws.
To exemplify the purpose of these laws, Baranda cited the Cheaper Drugs Act, which allows the import of generic drugs from foreign countries, like India, that do not need local patents, thus increasing competition between drug companies and effectively lowering drug prices.
With this, Atty. Baranda referenced the recent international issue from the company Turing Pharmaceuticals, who bought the rights to various drugs and thereafter, inflated the price by up to 2000%.
Additionally, Baranda explained the difficulty of enforcing local laws such as the Generics Act of 1988, one the provisions of which requires doctors to prescribe generic drug counterparts of innovator drugs.
A question and answer portion followed, where one physician brought to light the position that doctors often do not follow the above mentioned law because here in the Philippines, physicians cannot be assure that there is therapeutic equivalence between generic and innovator drugs.
Following the discussion of Atty. Baranda, Cheryl Argent, 2nd year, a member of the Academics committee of the SLCM Student Council gave a presentation introducing the SLCM Student Council Scholarship Program, “Lukan Beyond Scholarship Fund”.
This initiative is in cooperation with SLMC Foundation who will screen potential applicants for the said program.
The program will rely on donations from the St. Luke’s community.
For donations above PHP 10,000.00, certificates granting tax incentives can be arranged by the SLMC Foundation.
The scholarship is set to begin in the next academic year. [x]
On Wednesday, the 23rd of September 2015, St Luke’s College of Medicine welcomed its students and faculty to its 2nd general assembly featuring Attorney Edmund Jason Baranda, managing partner of Baranda and Associates for a talk about Intellectual property rights.
Atty. Baranda graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from University of the Philippines and a Master of Law from University of Michigan Law School. He specializes in intellectual property law, which was the topic of his discussion entitled, “Basics of Intellectual Property Rights”.
He provided a detailed discussion on the international patency guidelines including the differences between local and international patency laws.
To exemplify the purpose of these laws, Baranda cited the Cheaper Drugs Act, which allows the import of generic drugs from foreign countries, like India, that do not need local patents, thus increasing competition between drug companies and effectively lowering drug prices.
With this, Atty. Baranda referenced the recent international issue from the company Turing Pharmaceuticals, who bought the rights to various drugs and thereafter, inflated the price by up to 2000%.
Additionally, Baranda explained the difficulty of enforcing local laws such as the Generics Act of 1988, one the provisions of which requires doctors to prescribe generic drug counterparts of innovator drugs.
A question and answer portion followed, where one physician brought to light the position that doctors often do not follow the above mentioned law because here in the Philippines, physicians cannot be assure that there is therapeutic equivalence between generic and innovator drugs.
Following the discussion of Atty. Baranda, Cheryl Argent, 2nd year, a member of the Academics committee of the SLCM Student Council gave a presentation introducing the SLCM Student Council Scholarship Program, “Lukan Beyond Scholarship Fund”.
This initiative is in cooperation with SLMC Foundation who will screen potential applicants for the said program.
The program will rely on donations from the St. Luke’s community.
For donations above PHP 10,000.00, certificates granting tax incentives can be arranged by the SLMC Foundation.
The scholarship is set to begin in the next academic year. [x]