Philippine National Drug Formulary 2008 Volume 1

7th Edition. — 2008. — 315 p.The Philippine National Drug Formulary (PNDF) is an integral component of the Philippine National Drug Policy, aimed at making available and accessible, essential medicines of proven efficacy, safety and quality at affordable cost. It's formulation by the Department of Health (DOH) through the National Formulary Committee (NFC), formerly called the National Drug Committee, has been mandated by R.A. 6675, otherwise known as the Generics Act of 1988.
The PNDF Volume I, the Essential Medicines List, is a major step towards rational use of medicines in the country. The medicines are selected with due regard to public health relevance, evidence of efficacy and safety and comparative cost‐effectiveness. The national list of essential medicines is a subset of registered medicines divided according to different levels of care. A carefully selected limited list of essential medicines leads to higher quality of care, better management of medicines including improved quality control, more cost‐effective use of health resources and ensures regular supply of essential medicines, resulting in real health gain and increased confidence on the health system.
The 7th edition of the PNDF Volume I has maintained basically the same objectives and organization as in the previous editions. However, measures have been adopted to simplify the listing by limiting the numbering to a maximum of three, whenever possible. Further, the NFC has adopted the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation to replace the word "drug" with "medicines". The algorithms for deletion and addition of medicines have been followed strictly and the evaluation of the efficacy and safety by an unbiased agency, the National Drug Information Center (NDIC) has been made a requirement for the decision making process. The NFC followed the same consultative and participative process in its formulation through a series of deliberation meetings with different panels of experts from the medical schools, Philippine Medical Association, various specialty and subspecialty societies and government and private hospitals. Inputs from the pharmaceutical companies and other stakeholders have also been considered.