City creates pharmacy, therapeutics committee

The city has created the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee under the City Health Services Offices to spearhead the development of policies and protocols on the selection, procurement, distribution and use of medicines in the city.

In Executive Order 161-2021, Mayor Benjamin Magalong said the committee was created pursuant to the city’s mandate to assist the national government agencies in enforcing policies that will regulate the sale and distribution of quality medicines within its territorial jurisdiction to ensure that medical goods and services available in the market are compliant with national standards.

The committee will act as an advisory and recommending committee to the Local Health Board on all issues, policies and guidelines on the selection, procurement, distribution and use of medicines.

It will also develop and adopt policies and protocols on the following: criteria for inclusion of medicines on the essential medicines list (EML) shall be based on the Primary Care Formulary and the needs of the community; standard treatment guidelines and treatment algorithms which will be the basis for formulary selection of medicines; expensive or dangerous medicines such as third-generation antibiotics or oncological drugs which are restricted to certain practitioners, departments or patients; and recommendation for adopting national implementing guidelines on pharmaceutical management and price monitoring.

The committee will also evaluate and select essential medicines for procurement based on the needs of the community and the primary care formulary and ensure that prices are within the range set by current drug pricing policies; assess medicines use through drug utilization review; collate and assess reports on pharmacovigilance, among other functions.

The CHSO will submit the member who will compose the committee. –Aileen P. Refuerzo