Lately, I am seeing a TV commercial wherein the "Drugstore Owner" recommends a certain brand of paracetamol to the viewing public.

So I wrote the Bureau of Food and Drugs (licd@bfad.gov.ph) last week "to inquire whether this kind of TV commercial violated certain provision of A.O. 63 s. of 1989 since many drugstores are also owned by pharmacists. The Admnistrative Order says generic dispensing as 'dispensing the patient's/buyer's choice from among generic equivalents, i.e., finished pharmaceutical products having the same active ingredient(s), same dosage form and same strength as the prescribed drug' (Section 1, 1.2) and that 'Imposing a particular brand or product on the buyer' (Section 5, 5.1) is considered a violation".

Whether my inquiry gets a reply or not, I just would like to say that our responsibility under the Generics Act (to borrrow the words of former BFAD Secretary, Quintin L. Kintanar, MD, PhD) is that "of informing the consumer what are the available generically-equivalent drug products and their prices" and not to engage in favoring certain drug products over the others.

Assuming that drugstores purchase their stocks from legitimate and reputable suppliers, the only thing that I can think of why pharmacists (or their PAs) would "impose" certain brands to their customers is because of the promos that suppliers offer to them.

For example, discounts in the bulk purchase of the supplier's products are sometimes tempting to drugstore owners (whether they are pharmacists or not). So, if higher profits can be obtained by offering these drug products, the buyer who is not aware of his rights would just accept what the pharmacists or the PAs would recommend.