HOW CAN WE ADOPT MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS FASTER THAN USUAL?

HOW CAN WE ADOPT MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS FASTER THAN USUAL?

Every year, thousands of Filipinos die not because there is no treatment available in the world, but because the treatment has not yet reached our shores.

This is the painful reality of medical innovation in the Philippines. Foreign breakthroughs usually arrive years late because their entry is left largely to commercial forces. Pharmaceutical companies naturally prioritize bigger and more profitable markets. As a result, Filipino patients often wait five years or more before accessing life-saving technologies already available elsewhere.

A perfect example is the breakthrough anti-cancer drug daraxonrasib. Researchers recently presented data showing that this once-daily pill nearly doubled the median survival of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer—from 6.7 months to 13.2 months. Pancreatic cancer has long been one of the deadliest cancers, with a five-year survival rate historically in the single digits. For many oncologists, this drug represents the biggest breakthrough in decades.

The question is: should Filipinos wait years before benefiting from this innovation?

I believe the answer is no.

Government intervention in the national interest is both justified and necessary. If we can fast-track infrastructure projects, why can we not fast-track life-saving medicines?

The Department of Health and the Food and Drug Administration could establish an accelerated pathway for breakthrough therapies already granted special designations by regulators abroad, such as the U.S. FDA's Breakthrough Therapy status. During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world proved that rolling reviews and emergency authorizations can dramatically shorten timelines without abandoning scientific rigor.

The government can also provide grants for local clinical trials. Since the DOH already manages several hospitals and has access to medical specialists and patient populations, conducting government-supported trials need not be prohibitively expensive. Public-private partnerships with pharmaceutical companies could further reduce costs and encourage the early introduction of promising therapies.

Why not authorize the Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC) to facilitate the importation of breakthrough medicines for compassionate use and expanded access programs? Such a mechanism could give critically ill patients a fighting chance while formal registration processes are still underway.

Beyond drugs, we should modernize our entire healthcare innovation ecosystem. Artificial intelligence, telemedicine, digital clinical trials, and electronic health records can significantly shorten the time between scientific discovery and clinical adoption. Medical knowledge should move at the speed of data, not at the speed of bureaucracy.

Of course, speed should never compromise safety. Medicines must still undergo proper scientific evaluation. However, there is a difference between necessary caution and unnecessary delay.

Every month of delay has a human cost. Every year of inaction means more parents, spouses, children, and friends lost to diseases that may already have better treatment options elsewhere.

Perhaps Congress should consider enacting a "Breakthrough Medical Technologies Adoption Act" that would establish expedited review procedures, government funding for priority clinical trials, tax incentives for innovators, and compassionate-use mechanisms for patients with life-threatening illnesses.

The true measure of a healthcare system is not merely its ability to treat disease but its willingness to embrace hope when science offers it.

The world is entering a new era of medicine. The Philippines should not remain at the back of the line. When a medical breakthrough can save lives, our response should not be, "Let us wait five years."

Our response should be: "How can we bring it to our people safely—and as soon as possible?"

RAMON IKE V. SENERES

www.facebook.com/ike.seneres  iseneres@yahoo.com  senseneres.blogspot.com  09088877282/07-16-2027

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