TACLOBAN CITY – The Pfizer Philippines Pharmaceutical Company is spending some P30 million a year to support the Leaders for Health Program (LHP) of the Department of Health (DOH) and the Ateneo Graduate Scholl of Business (AGSB).

Rey Gerardo Bacarro, Pfizer Philippines president and country director, said that they have been allocating at least 5% of their net profit for the improvement of the country’s health sector.

“We believe in making an impact to the community by rendering services which is our core values,” Bacarro said.

The top official of Pfizer, Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit and Dr. Alfredo Bengzon , formerly the secretary of DOH and now the dean of AGSB, were in this city to meet local officials to push through the implementation of LHP.

According to Bacarro, Pfizer has been supplying the financial standing of the project particularly in the provision of logistics for the capacity building of doctors, municipal mayors and community larders in previously doctorless towns in the country.

These towns are locating in Albay, Camarines Sur, Samar Island, Biliran, Bohol, Negros Oriental, Surigao Del Norte, Agusan Del Sur, Zamboanga de Sur, and Lanao Del Sur.

Since its launching in 2002, Bacarro said that trough the assistance of Pfizer, 20 doctors and 42 community leaders were enabled ‘to work together and create a common vision of health.”

Pfizer has assured of continued funding support for the expansion to 30 more areas this year and this bring the total number of LHP sites in the country to 50.

Since their arrival, the doctors have been serving from 50 to 80 patients a day, which translates to over 300, 000 beneficiaries a year.

Aside from treating patients, the doctors also provide valuable medical and disease management information that help correct some o the unsanitary health practices traditionally used in remote areas.