Unilab’s summit are plain junkets

By A Web design Company

‘The Philippine Medical Association should be a little more strict in allowing its members to join free trips abroad.’

UNITED Laboratories (Unilab), the largest and most profit­able pharmaceutical company in the Philippines has a unique but expensive way of selling its products. Apart from a large group of medical representatives all over the country, Unilab regu­larly sends physicians abroad, presumably to learn new ways of treat­ing diseases. 

Based on documents furnished this space from a source in Unilab the trips are actually junkets. His proofs are the itineraries of the physicians themselves. 

For example, Unilab sponsored what it calls a nephrology summit attended by seventy physicians who traveled in two batches. The names in the list do not tell me that at least one or two or several of them are nephrologists or experts on diseases of the kidneys. 

There is nothing in the records obtained by Malaya Business In­sight that the physicians attended a meeting of foreign high-powered nephrologists in Whistler, Canada. In fact, the itinerary does not in­dicate that there was any conference on nephrology at all. 

The trips are of course fully paid by Unilab. In fact, there were a few summits where people – not necessarily physicians -- may join. It is understood they pay a modest fee. 

The physicians are taken to shopping trips and tourist destinations. The cost of shopping is limited to a certain reasonably hefty amount but Unilab pays for whatever the physicians buy. 

The word “summit” as far as Unilab is concerned has been given a new meaning, a new twist. In the case of Unilab, physicians, not nec­essarily nephrologists attended the summit. Strangely, the itinerary does not even indicate there was a medical conference of any sort. 

So why do physicians attend these “summits”? My guess is a chance to travel for free. 

Other pharmaceutical companies hardly offer any trips at all. 

When they do, few physicians in their fields of specialization are sent – also free. But they learn a few things in the medical conferences. 

How can Unilab send 70 physicians in two batches to attend what it calls a nephro summit? I do not believe there are that many ne­phrologists in this country. The only one I personally know is Dr. Filoteo Alano who is married to my cousin Flora Macasaet. The sec­retary of health Dr. Enrique Ona is also known as a nephrologist. 

It might have been the desire of Unilab or its subsidiaries to sug­gest to physicians who join the junkets to prescribe a drug brand called Renogen made in India. The medicine or drug, according to my source is used in hemo dialysis, a procedure applied to victims of uremia or malfunctioning of the kidneys. 

A university hospital in the outskirts of Manila where my distant grandfather, the late Dr. Ramon K. Macasaet was dean of medicine for many years discovered that Renogen is a defective drug. I heard that key representatives of Unilab went to talk to the pharmacist of the university hospital and requested her not to talk about it. 

The Unilab officials assured the pharmacist that the medicine has been withdrawn from Mercury Drug, the country’s largest drug retail chain. 

Renogen is the third medicine imported from India, not only by Unilab, which has been discovered to have some defects. 

The first was Amoclav which, in two instances, turned reddish brown after it was mixed with diluents. The second was Merop which, according to the report of the US Food and Drug Adminis­tration, was reported by Pfizer to be contaminated with fungi. 

We learned from friends and physicians that St. Luke’s Medical  Center has stopped storing Amo­clav and Merop.

It is presumed that all drugs and medicines – locally manufactured or imported – are tested by the laborato­ries of the Bureau of Food and Drugs. How the defects escaped the agency is a question Unilab does not ask.

In fairness, it might have been possible that one capsule, tablet or vial in hundreds of thousands may be defective. The BFAD does not test all the drugs and medicines.

However, the discovery of de­fects should keep the ears of the BFAD on the ground. Upon dis­covery of a defect, the importer should take it upon itself to stop distributing the medicine. In fact the defects are grounds for the importer to sue the manufacturer.

Going back to Renogen, the med­icine used in dialysis, one wonders why the so-called nephro summit was not held in India where the product is manufactured. The phy­sicians – nephrologists or general practitioners – could have learned a thing or two about Renogen and the good it does to victims of kid­ney malfunction. 

Unilab chose Canada but there was no such summit, not even a medical conference if the itinerary tells what the trip was all about. 

Dialysis can be self-administered with the assistance of a nurse. Unilab had expected more than P150 million in sales from Reno­gen. The target may not have been met. So, there went the expenses of physicians in the nephrology summit that never was.

The other point here is the Philippine Medical Association should be a little more strict in allowing its members to join free trips abroad. If the trips improve the competence of the physicians, they should be encouraged and in fact funded by the PMA.

But if the trips are intended to en­courage the physicians to prescribe cer­tain drugs and medicines of the spon­sor, they should be shunned. They tend to reduce the dignity of physicians as guardians of human health.

Unilab has the wisdom of capital­izing on the Filipino trait or virtue of gratitude (utang na loob). If I were a physician who cannot even afford to go to say, Hong Kong on my own, why shouldn’t I prescribe the drugs and medicines of any company that sends me – all ex­penses paid and shopping to boot?

This space has the details of two more such summits, one in. urol­ogy and the other described as anti-infective in Amsterdam. The participants were sent in three batches or groups. Readers who may want to know the identities of the physicians can communi­cate with us at our email address: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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