99 Botika ng Barangay now set up in Region VI

A total of ninety-nine (99)  Botika ng Barangay has already been established in Region VI by the Department of Health to comply with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's pledge in her  200l State of the Nation Address to reduce the price of drugs and medicines.

The DOH has targeted 382 Botika ng Barangay (BNB) to be completely  set up by 2006, said Mrs. Delia D. Tarrosa, chief of the DOH VI Licensing, Regulations, Enforcement  Division during the CATV program of the Philippine Information Agency at Cable Star Channel l5, recently.

Tarrosa said that BNB is a drug outlet set up to provide safe, effective, quality medicines available, and very much accessible for the majority of Filipinos, most especially the poor. It is also duly licensed by the Bureau of Foods and Drugs.

BNB, Tarrosa said, can be set up and managed by LGUs or by an organized body of the community in order to be efficient and effective. The organization  may be a cooperative, People's Organization or Non-Government Organization. The interested operator when qualified will have a Memorandum of Agreement signed with the DOH. Then the DOH trains the designated operator of the BNB on supply and financial management and proper care of medicines. Also the BNB is required to have a  supervising pharmacist.

According to Tarrosa, the provinces which have BNB set up already are: Aklan- l5; Antique- l0 LGU operated and 33 NGO operated; Capiz- 2; Guimaras- l; Iloilo- 3; and Negros Occidental- 29 LGU operated and 6 PO/NGO operated.

Tarrosa said that a P25,000 package of medical supplies are given each to these BNBs.  The medicines sold here are: amoxicillin, cotrimoxasole, paracetamol, mefenamic acid, loperamide, ketoconazole cream and povidone iodine. These are sold at a very affordable price.

Setting up drug outlets that sell cheap quality medicines in areas where these are mostly needed was one of the priorities set by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in her 2001 State of the Nation Address to alleviate poverty. (PIA/T.Villavert)