There have been controversies over generic drugs made in India and Bangladesh.  Tsai Li-Juan, Vice CEO of the Formosa Cancer Foundation, expressed her worries about the quality of illegally imported generic drugs.  However, for those patients with advanced stage cancers who are not able to afford the expensive cancer treatments, illegal imports are a risk that they are willing to take.  What’s worrying is that rogue vendors have been heavily advertising those unapproved and illegally imported generic drugs on the internet.  The breach of advertisement regulations has posed serious risks to patients.

Gu Po-Jen, President of the Taiwan Pharmacist Association, expressed that only those drugs approved by the TFDA and supplied via legal channels can provide protection to patients.  All TDFA-approved drugs have to comply with the transportation and storage requirements set in the Good Distribution Practice Guidelines.  According to Gu, more and more patients buy generic cancer drugs through illegal channels.  Those drugs are claimed to have the same ingredients as the original drugs.  However, they don’t have the TFDA’s official approval, hence, no guarantee of quality and safety.

Gu Po-Jen said that he understood that patients are buying generic cancer drugs from illegal channels due to financial difficulties, in spite of knowing that they are at risk.  Gu stressed that the government should not make the drug reimbursement policy simply based on prices.  It should have patients’ best interest in mind.

Dr Chen Yu-Min of the Taipei VGH and Dr Lee Kang-Yun of the ShuangHo Hospital both agreed that the NHI should speed up the reimbursement of new cancer drugs and increase patients’ access to those drugs by negotiating drug prices with drug companies or introducing the co-payment system.  This will save patients from resorting to illegal generic imports.

Dr Chen Yu-Min said that it would be ideal if the NHI could reimburse original cancer drugs.  However, the reality is that it would impose a heavy financial burden on the NHI.  Therefore, the MOHW should consider revising the law to introduce the co-payment system into the NHI.  If patients can access original drugs at the prices of generics, who would want to buy from illegal vendors?

【2019-09-18 / United Daily News】