In a six-page resolution penned by Assistant State Prosecutor Cesar Calubag, the DOJ found insufficient evidence of drug counterfeiting to indict businessman Renante Dumasig in a complaint filed by Astra Zeneca, Pfizer Philippines and Novartis.

Assistant Chief Prosecutor Pedrito Lances, chairman of the DOJ’s Task Force on Anti-Intellectual Property Piracy, recommended the approval of the resolution, while Prosecutor General Claro Arellano approved it.

The DOJ panel said that “while the complainants’ evidence tends to prove that the medicines seized from Dumasig on November 18, 2010, were not registered with the Food and Drug Administration [FDA], their conclusion that the items were counterfeit lacks merit.”

“A clearer scrutiny of the samples submitted by complainants would show the drugs were manufactured and registered in another country as appearing in their labels. This explains why the seized medicines were not registered with our FDA and the labels thereof were not in accordance with the Philippine Generic Labeling Requirements. This cannot be a proof that the medicines are counterfeit,” the resolution said.

It added that the provision of Republic Act (RA) 9711, or a law strengthening the regulatory power of the FDA, does not apply to the case as “this would run counter with the provisions of RA 9502, or the Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicine Act of 2008.”

The resolution added that RA 9502 grants third persons the right to import medicines even if there are same ones registered in the Philippines.

“Therefore, the seized medicines cannot be classified as counterfeit and the respondent’s act of importing and selling the [essential] drugs cannot be classified as criminal as stated in the Supreme Court ruling in Roma Drug and Romeo Rodriguez v Regional Trial Court in Guagua, Pampanga; Food and Drugs Administration and Glaxo SmithKline.”

(Joel San Juan)