Catalyzing access to affordable, branded oral-contraceptive pills: Sustainable solutions from the private sector

After four decades of depending on the Philippine public sector and foreign donors to provide family planning (FP) services and commodities, the Philippine Department of Health and USAID have developed a Contraceptive Self-Reliance Strategy which will enable Filipinos to access contraceptives without relying on this support. This strategy calls for a total phase-out of donor commodity support and instead, given the increasing demand for FP services, it is looking to the private sector to meet consumer need for contraceptive services. The Private Sector Mobilization for Family Health (PRISM) Project implements this strategy in the Philippines by 1) helping pharmaceutical companies recognize and take advantage of extensive market opportunities to deliver FP services and commodities; and 2) providing grant funds to smooth the introduction/relaunch of four oral contraceptive brands in the low-income market. Using this approach, PRISM staff worked with an oral-contraceptive manufacturer to reduce the retail price of their product by as much as 70 percent. After only one year, sales revenues from the reduced-priced product are at the same level as before the reduction, indicating that consumers are buying significantly more contraceptives than before the price cut. The contraceptive manufacturer continues to sell the product at the reduced rates and sustaining the previously grants-funded activities with their own resources. Through this initiative, PRISM has demonstrated that the private sector can be mobilized to meet growing market demand for contraceptives, thereby helping ensure that an increasing population has sustainable access to quality, affordable family-planning services and commodities.