MANILA – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has endorsed an additional twenty-two medicines for various diseases to be exempt from the value-added tax (VAT), aiming to enhance accessibility for consumers.
As per FDA Advisory No. 2024-0329, signed by Director General Samuel Zacate, the regulatory body recommended to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) the inclusion of fourteen cancer drugs, four hypertension drugs, and four drugs for mental illness in the list of medicines exempt from the 12-percent VAT.
The advisory, dated February 15, was made public on the FDA’s website only on Monday.
The cancer medicines recommended for VAT exemption include Sonidegib (as phosphate) 200 milligram (mg) capsules; Pemetrexed (as disodium heptahydrate) 100 mg powder; Asciminib (as hydrochloride) in both 20 mg and 40 mg tablets; Palbociclib in 75 mg, 100 mg, and 125 mg tablets; Pemetrexed (as disodium hemipentahydrate) 100 mg powder for infusion and 10 mg/mL solution for injection; Cabazitaxel 60 mg/1.5 mL concentrate for solution for injection; and Entrectinib 100 mg and 200 mg capsules.
For hypertension, the recommended medicines are Losartan Potassium+Amlodipine (as besilate) in 100 mg/10 mg and 100 mg/5 mg tablets, and Irbesartan+Amlodipine (as besilate) in 300 mg/5 mg and 300 mg/10 mg tablets.
Additionally, Cariprazine (as hydrochloride) in 1.5 mg, 3 mg, 4.5 mg, and 6 mg capsules, primarily used to treat schizophrenia, and manic or mixed episodes and depressive episodes associated with bipolar disorder, was also endorsed for VAT exemption.
The VAT exemption for these medicines became effective on February 19.
As an illustration of the impact of the VAT exemption, let’s consider a film-coated tablet of a specific brand of Losartan Potassium+Amlodipine (as besilate) 100 mg/5 mg, used for the treatment of mild to moderate hypertension, currently sold by a popular drugstore chain at P30.75, inclusive of VAT.
Now that it’s VAT-free, its price will decrease by 10.7 percent to P27.45.
Senior citizens and persons with disabilities, who are entitled to an additional 20-percent discount under the law, can purchase the same drug at an even lower price of P21.96—representing a 28.6 percent reduction from its original retail price of P30.75.
The 22 newly endorsed medicines are in addition to the more than 2,000 drugs already exempted from VAT under Republic Act No. 10963, known as the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act, and RA 11534, the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act. These drugs are indicated for various conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, cancer, high cholesterol, mental illnesses, tuberculosis, kidney diseases, and those specifically used for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.
Under RA 11534, the Department of Health (DOH) and the FDA are tasked with identifying the specific medicines to be included in the List of VAT-Exempt Health Products, which is then transmitted to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
Director General Zacate endorsed the 22 new drugs under the latest FDA advisory through a letter dated February 5 to Internal Revenue Commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr.
The VAT exemption for the covered medicines and medical devices under the CREATE Act will take effect on the date when the FDA publishes the updated list, accessible at https://verification.fda.gov.ph.
Quarterly updates
According to the FDA website, as of February 19, the total number of health products exempted from VAT includes 538 medicines for hypertension, 653 for cancer, 288 for mental illness, 74 for tuberculosis, 151 for kidney disease, 298 for diabetes, 159 for high cholesterol, 60 medical devices directly used for COVID-19 treatment, and 350 drugs and vaccines prescribed and directly used for COVID-19 treatment.
By law, the FDA is required to provide an updated list 30 days prior to the beginning of every quarter. Therefore, the FDA should publish an updated list of VAT-exempt medicines in February, May, August, and November of each year.
Just last month, on January 26, the BIR released Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 17-2024 exempting 21 medicines from VAT based on FDA Advisory No. 2024-006 dated January 2. The FDA’s endorsement letter to the BIR for the previous batch was dated November 29, 2023.
Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa welcomed the addition of these new medicines to the VAT-exempted list as it will lead to lower prices for these essential drugs.
“One of the things I want to achieve is to make medicines more accessible and cheaper, so more sick people can avail themselves of these lifesaving drugs. It will also mean more people will be provided with these drugs with the budget allocated to the Department of Health,” he said. “It will be a big help to everyone.”
According to Lumagui, under his leadership, the BIR would implement measures and release circulars aimed at making the financial lives of Filipinos easier.
“Updating the list of VAT-exempt medicines is part of taxpayer service. We will update taxpayers as soon as possible of exemptions given to them by existing laws,” he said.
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