Health made affordable, inclusive as a commitment

Health made affordable, inclusive as a commitment | Daily Tribune

Access must be sustainable, too

Providing medicines while maintaining a viable pharmaceutical business also requires balancing affordability and profitability.

Salian said a significant part of their portfolio is weighted toward lower-margin products, with volume helping sustain that side of the business.

“Our portfolio is mainly overweighted into lower-margin ones, but then it doesn’t limit us there,” Salian stated.

The group also operates branded, or “ethical,” pharmaceutical lines that offer better margins, allowing its business units to support one another.

MedEthix, for instance, has developed business units covering reproductive medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics and urology.

Its philosophy is reflected in a company tagline Salian echoed during the interview: “To heal always and in all ways.”

For her, the portfolio also reflects the idea of supporting patients through different stages of family life, from couples experiencing difficulty conceiving to pregnancy, childbirth and pediatric care.

“We try to build the entire ethical marketing of MedEthix. We build — the main goal is to build community,” she said.

Despite the need to keep the businesses commercially viable, Salian said profitability does not sit at the top of their priorities.

“We focus on people; we try to look for product, the second one, and I guess profitability will just be the last one for us to consider,” she underscored.

“Of course, we need profitability at the end of the day because we have to operate the company, but then in the hierarchy of prioritizing it, it’s the people that we really — it’s the main focus for the company’s objective.”

Meds moving faster

Access, however, does not depend on pharmaceutical companies alone.

Imported medicines still have to pass through regulatory and Customs processes, where delays can become particularly critical for products patients urgently need.

Salian cited anti-cancer medicines as an example of pharmaceutical products for which lengthy delays in Customs clearance could have consequences down the supply chain.

“There are goods that we need to release as soon as they arrive, like those anti-cancer drugs. We cannot keep them in customs for so long,” she said.

“It has to be immediately facilitated for release.”

Salian said their company was among representatives from different industries tapped for the Bureau of Customs’ Top Importers Office initiative, which seeks closer coordination between major importers and Customs officials to improve the ease of doing business.

She described the proposed system as potentially functioning like a “fast lane” and giving participating importers a focal office to address concerns about the release of goods.

Salian stressed, however, that policies governing the initiative were still being finalized.

The same focus on access extends outside the companies through the Salian Foundation, the family’s philanthropic arm focused largely on education and health.

Salian said about two percent of business income is generally allotted to the foundation, although the family does not impose a fixed ceiling when emergencies require additional assistance.

“Approximately, we’re giving around — we’re allotting around two percent there, but for us, there’s no ceiling. We don’t cap such thing,” she said.

The foundation conducts feeding programs, scholarships, medical missions and emergency assistance, including aid for communities affected by typhoons and earthquakes.

It supports about 2,200 children, including 480 scholars, according to Salian.

Healthcare remains a regular part of its work. The foundation has conducted annual medical missions and, more recently, has assisted elderly patients needing cataract surgery.

But education is taking greater prominence in its current activities.

Salian, a proud Capizeña, said the foundation has been gathering resources for an initiative involving as many as 475 Department of Education schools in Capiz, with plans to provide supplies such as hygiene kits and vitamins.

“You identify the most deprived ones. I mean, those that are the least that the people could visit or the people could give some assistance,” Salian recalled telling her colleague.

The approach mirrors the philosophy she describes in the pharmaceutical business: identify where access remains difficult, then find a way to close the gap.

For Salian, there is still much ground to cover. Despite the group’s growing network of overseas partners, communities in the Philippines still face barriers to accessing medical care and essential medicines.

And while medicines may travel thousands of kilometers to reach the Philippines, Salian believes their journey only matters when they finally reach the Filipino patients who need them most.