One month after threatening to slash prices on numerous meds by up to 50 percent, the Philippines health ministry is set to reach a deal in which prices will be cut only on 40 drugs suggested by the pharmaceutical industry, The Financial Times reports. And the deal may help drugmakers stem a slide in revenue growth blamed on mandatory cuts imposed last year on more than 100 drugs.

Prescription drug sales last year rose by only 2.5 per cent compared with the average rise of 9.7 per cent in the previous three years, according to IMS, the pharmaceutical industry data provider. Growth in sales of prescription meds, which account for close to three-fourths of the market, shrank to 0.7 per cent from the three-year average of 10.2 per cent, the FT continues.

“This time, the list will be based purely on what the drug companies themselves have submitted” said Alexander Padilla, an undersecretary at the government department of health, tells the FT. Manila hasn’t yet completed an assessment of the August price cuts but early studies show it limited benefits for poor people, the FT writes. An industry trade group in The Philippines says around 600 people have already lost their jobs in the industry as a result of the first round of price cuts (background).