Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Watsons Makes Quality Healthcare More Affordable for Filipinos



Health is among the top three concerns of Filipinos, next to to work-life balance and job security. According to people who were tapped in a  recent study*, being healthy means having more time to spend with family and enjoy activities with friends. 

Unfortunately, health management in the Philippines is very expensive which is why a lot of Filipinos usually result to self-medication and do not finish prescribed cycles of treatments when they can no longer buy the medicines they need. In addition, many Filipinos tend to consult doctors only when their symptoms become unbearable.

Although there are now more affordable medicines manufactured to solve the problem of costly medications, many people are still uncomfortable in switching to generic drugs because of negative stories in the past about the bad reputation of generics and their questionable efficacy and  poor quality. 


Watsons shared that they exerted utmost effort to overcome these challenges by looking for the right pharmaceutical partners and bring together quality generic medicines in the market. This is consistent with its mission to inspire people to live beautifully and healthily and to provide value to shoppers in managing their health.

Many of us ask if we can really trust generic products. According to Watsons, there are 3 things you should look for:
1. Generic drugs must be manufactured by a trusted pharmaceutical company
2. They should be FDA approved
3. They should be sold by a reputable pharmacy retailer

Watsons claim that they only carry generic medicines that comply with the criteria listed above. And to further ensure that consumers are educated to know the difference between trusted and questionable generics, they launched the Buy Generics and Save advocacy to make it easier for customers to look for the generic counterparts of their branded medicines.

Starting this June, look for the highly visible Buy Generics counter inside Watsons branches which will bring together all its generic offers in one easy-to-spot location. This new health section will carry the Watsons Compliance Packs (for chronic and acute diseases), Watsons Health Packs  (for common ailments like headache, stomach ache, allergy, etc.) and a wide range of generic products from trusted manufacturers like Unilab, Ritemed, Pharex, and others to provide more options to customers on top of the branded products available.

Watsons Personal Care Stores (Phils.) Inc. is part of the Health and Beauty Store chain of A.S. Watson, the  largest health and beauty retailer in the world. For more information, visit www.watsons.com.ph

* Campaign/TNS Asia's Top 1,000 brands survey 2011 of over 3,000 Asian respondents


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