PITC PHARMA, INC.
PITC
Pharma, Inc. (PITC
Pharma), a subsidiary of the Philippine International Trading
Corporation (PITC) and an affiliate of the National Development Company
(NDC) was created in 2005 to spearhead the pharmaceutical business of
PITC as mandated under Executive Order No. 442. This EO was
issued by
Her Excellency President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on 04 July 2005
designating the PITC as the “lead coordinating agency to make
quality
medicines available, affordable and accessible to the greater masses of
Filipinos.”
With the Half-Priced Medicines Program as the flagship project of PITC, it embarked on activities anchored on three (3) strategic thrusts: 1) increase PDI importation for private sector; 2) expansion of distribution network; and 3) sustained advocacy and information campaign. The program seeks to achieve the President’s MTPDP objective of “reducing the cost of medicines commonly bought by the poor to half of their 2001 prices, by 2010.”
To implement the program, strategic partnerships were forged with industry players and stakeholders, such as the Drugstores Association of the Philippines (DSAP), the Philippine Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industries (PCPI), civic organizations, associations of local government units and some multi-national companies. On 17 December 2004, the first Botika ng Bayan outlet was opened at the 2nd floor of the NDC Building, where the offices of the pharmaceutical department of PITC was located. DSAP members followed suit by accrediting their drugstores in the program.
Realizing the intricacies of running a pharmaceutical business and so as not to complicate capital infusion into the program, the pharmaceutical operation of PITC was spun off into a new corporation now known as the PITC Pharma, Inc.
With the Half-Priced Medicines Program as the flagship project of PITC, it embarked on activities anchored on three (3) strategic thrusts: 1) increase PDI importation for private sector; 2) expansion of distribution network; and 3) sustained advocacy and information campaign. The program seeks to achieve the President’s MTPDP objective of “reducing the cost of medicines commonly bought by the poor to half of their 2001 prices, by 2010.”
To implement the program, strategic partnerships were forged with industry players and stakeholders, such as the Drugstores Association of the Philippines (DSAP), the Philippine Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industries (PCPI), civic organizations, associations of local government units and some multi-national companies. On 17 December 2004, the first Botika ng Bayan outlet was opened at the 2nd floor of the NDC Building, where the offices of the pharmaceutical department of PITC was located. DSAP members followed suit by accrediting their drugstores in the program.
Realizing the intricacies of running a pharmaceutical business and so as not to complicate capital infusion into the program, the pharmaceutical operation of PITC was spun off into a new corporation now known as the PITC Pharma, Inc.
