Research and technology assistance are the major highlights of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) for 2017.  Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) what he considers the five major accomplishments of the DOST in 2017.

R&D assistance

De la Peña said the DOST assisted more than 1,000 Research and Development (R&D) projects all over the country, with 65 percent already completed.

The 1,057 R&D projects are being managed by DOST-attached agencies and councils, such as the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development and the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development.

In terms of technology transfer, the DOST-Technology Application and Promotion Institute guides investors regarding the intellectual-property system. The agency also provides them with patent consultations, as well as grants for the payment of Intellectual Property Office fees.

According to  de la Peña, 165 patents have been filed at the Intellectual Property Office this year.

Three Technology Transfer Days were also organized in 2017, and 30 technology fairs were conducted.

Technology Transfer Day aims to ensure technologies or inventions are maximized for the benefit of society and industries. Locally developed technologies supported by the DOST are showcased during this activity.

The agency also provides precommercialization support. A total of 17 inventions it has promoted were already commercialized this year.

Assistance to MSMEs

For this year alone, 574 firms were provided with hardware and software to upgrade their technology capacity, according to de la Pena. These micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have received the Small Enterprises Technology Upgrading Program (Setup) innovation fund.

Setup is a DOST program that aims to encourage MSMEs to adopt technological innovations to improve their products and services. The program aims to help MSMEs improve their competitiveness by providing them with a loan that is payable in three years.

Assistance to start-ups

The DOST has assisted almost 400 start-ups in 2017.

“We have provided them with all types of assistance—money, services, calibration, etc.,” de la Peña said.

To further help the start-ups and MSMEs, the DOST offers the OneStore, a web site where their products are displayed and can be purchased.

Close to 11,000 products have been uploaded in the OneStore web site this year.

Human-resource development

De la Peña noted that, in 2017, the DOST has provided scholarships to more than 22,000 students.

Of the said figure, 7,881 are scholars of the Philippine Science High School. Close to 1,000 are taking their PhDs, while 2,700 are taking Master of Science. The rest of the scholars are taking undergraduate courses.

Additional radars

To further improve weather-forecasting capability and disaster-risk reduction in the country, four Doppler radars, which could measure the rain volume, and two flood-forecasting and -warning centers have been completed this year.

The DOST said that, to date, the country has 13 Doppler radars and three X-Band radars in the country. “These radars have contributed to low forecast track error,” the science agency said.

The Doppler radars are in Iloilo, Palawan, Guian, Subic, Tagaytay, Mactan, Hinatuan, Tampakan, Basco, Zamboanga, Aparri, Virac and Baguio.

The three X-Band radars, on the other hand, were placed in the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration central office in Quezon City, Mindanao, and Baler in Aurora province.

United Laboratories, Inc. (Unilab), the leading pharmaceutical and healthcare company in the Philippines, announced that its affiliate, the Sentrong Katutubong Yaman (Sekaya), is tapping into the country’s rich biodiversity to develop natural medicinal products with the help of science and technology (S&T).

Sekaya signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) enhance research and development (R&D) on health, especially in medicinal plants.

The signing was held during the recent inauguration of the Sekaya Research and Development Plant at the Unilab Pharma Campus in Mamplasan, Laguna. The facility is envisioned to become a collaborative R&D center for local medicinal plants and as a platform to develop natural products based on science to help the indigenous communities and small farmers benefit from the country’s rich resources.

Present during the signing and the inauguration of the Sekaya R&D Plant were Dr. Rowena Guevara, DOST undersecretary for research and development; Gov. Carmencita Ongsiako Reyes of Marinduque; Dr. Fabian Dayrit, professor at the Ateneo de Manila University Department of Chemistry; Dr. Dolores Ramirez, National Scientist; Dr. Teresita Borromeo, professor and head of the Plant Genetic Division of UP Los Banos; and Dr. Cecilia Maramba, director of the National Institutes of Health.

“Indigenous communities and farmers, who are among the poorest in the country, have a lot to gain from the development of plant-based natural products in terms of livelihood and health benefits,” said Dr. Eliseo Banaynal, executive director of Sekaya.

Lack of access to modern technology and technical expertise are among the barriers that prevent Filipino farmers from being competitive and from increasing their income, he said. Through the Sekaya facility, small farmers can tap the expertise of scientists and gain access to innovative technologies and processes.

The Philippines is one of the 17 megadiverse countries in the world or the world’s top biodiversity-rich countries which contain about 70 to 80 percent of the world’s plant and animal species. The Philippines ranks fifth in terms of number of plant species and is home to 5 percent of the world’s plants (about 10,000 to 13,000 species of plants described and recorded).

“The Philippines’ rich biodiversity should be protected at all costs; at the same time we should make sure that benefits from it will redound to the Filipinos,”  Joey Ochave, senior vice president of Unilab, said. Unilab, through Sekaya, will support communities in cultivating and developing practical applications for the country’s natural resources that will be beneficial to them,” said

For the DOST’s part, PCHRD Executive Director Dr. Jaime Montoya underscored the government’s call for continuous development of the country’s biodiversity for health-related discoveries, particularly plant-based medicines. DOST, through PCHRD, has been at the forefront of the government’s efforts to develop herbal medicines to maximise the potential of medicinal plants which abound all over the country.

According to PCHRD, experts have identified over 1,500 indigenous medicinal plants in the Philippines. Globally, there is renewed interest and demand for herbal medicines in recent years. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that eight out of 10 people worldwide use herbal medicines.

Lung specialists urged Filipinos living with a progressive condition known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to take part in a “landmark” five-year study that is seen to yield important, still unknown data on what is considered the seventh leading cause of death in the country.

COPD patients would need to consult their nearest pulmonologists in order to be recruited for the study, whose goal is to shed light on the still unclear “local flavor” of the disease, lung doctors on Wednesday.

Launched last year, the COPD Profile and Survival Study (CPASS) of the Philippine College of Chest Physicians (PCCP) aims to gather the profiles of COPD patients across the country, compare it with those of foreign patients, look at the survival rates, and bolster research on the disease in the country, said Dr. Tim Trinidad, who chairs the Council on COPD and Pulmonary Rehabilitation of the PCCP.

“The problem is we don’t have data on COPD, with regards our local setting...so we tried doing a research,” said Trinidad. He also said the study will involve the PCCP's nine chapters and 24 training institutions.

Dr. Charles Yu, president of the PCCP, said the CPASS is “the largest study of its kind” in the Philippines. He added that it has passed an ethics review and is now in the process of recruiting subjects.

“It is going to be a five-year study—we started 2016, hopefully we will be ending 2021,” Trinidad said.

The study—funded by the Department of Science and Technology's Philippine Council for Health and Research Development—will be especially helpful because doctors in the country do not yet know just how high the prevalence of COPD among Filipinos is, or why COPD seems to be more prevalent among women.

What they do know is based on an international study that is at least 10 years old, which said that two out of 10 persons over 40 years old in Metro Manila and Nueva Ecija had COPD; and that eight out of 10 of those with the disease do not know they have it.

COPD is projected by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be the third leading cause of death in the world by 2030. COPD reportedly affects 210 million people worldwide and was also the disease that killed veteran comedian Dolphy in 2012.

Silent until substantial damage is done

COPD is a progressive lung disease that damages the lungs slowly and may not be felt by a patientuntil 20 to 50 percent of the lungs are damaged, said Trinidad.

While it is not curable, the symptoms of the disease can be treated to improve quality of life and reduce the risk of death, according to the WHO.

“Ang COPD ay isang pinsala sa daanan ng hangin o baga na karaniwang nakukuha sa paninigarilyo,” said Dr. Roland Panaligan of the PCCP when asked for a simple explanation of COPD.

It is mainly caused by exposure to cigarette smoke; biomass fuels such as firewood or charcoal; as well as air pollution and occupational dust.

CODP is not tuberculosis, which is also highly prevalent in the country, said the doctors, though it can be a combination of emphysema and bronchitis.

To a lay person, Panaligan would say the symptoms are “hapo, hingal, ubo na hindi nawawala, na may kasamang plema.”

Patients may complain of asthma but actually be diagnosed with COPD, said PCCP board member Dr. Jubert Benedicto,  who also recommended attaching a prominent face—the late Dolphy, for example—to simplified explanations of the disease.

“Doon niya [patient] maiisip na, ‘naku, kung si Dolphy nga, mayaman, hindi na-spare sa COPD...’” he said.

“It’s an opportunity opening for us to tell them that you know, even if you have COPD, as long as you adhere to the medications which are available in the country...kaya pa hong magamot ang COPD,” Benedicto added.

COPD in the Philippines also goes largely undiagnosed for various reasons, which includes delayed consultations due to the cost of healthcare in the country, as well as a feeling of "comfort" with one's coughing and wheezing, symptoms of the disease, said Panaligan.

"Remember, the cost of healthcare delivery system is something out-of-pocket, so if they don’t have much money or savings for their health care, then it will really add up to the delay in terms of consultation," he said.

Majority of patients "take their symptoms for granted," too, said Benedicto.

One important way of addressing COPD is to quit smoking or to prevent exposure to noxious gases, said the doctors. There are also drugs that dilate the airways and curbs further lung damage, they said.

Raising awareness

Another strategy seen by the lung specialists to spread information about the COPD is through grassroots level awareness campaigns in barangays and municipalities, but they did not yet share details of their plans.

The PCCP on Wednesday also launched a partnership with private healthcare firm Novartis to boost their COPD awareness efforts, and to further the use of devices known as spirometers, which measure the amount of air inhaled and exhaled by the lungs.

It can be used by doctors and by lay folk who want to monitor their lung performance, said representatives from Novartis and the PCCP. A newer version of the spirometer may be connected to a mobile application for use by even non-doctors.

Novartis turned over spirometers to the PCCP, which will in turn distribute up to 650 of the portable devices to their members in the country for free-of-charge use by patients, said PCCP’s Yu.

The awareness-raising campaign, meanwhile, is called the BREATHE Initiative, which stands for Broadening Reach, Enhancing Awareness and Transforming Health Education. Novartis Philippines president Cheryl Maley said the endeavor will “ease the heavy burden [of CODP] in the country.”

The World COPD day is set to be held on November 15 and will be marked by various activities that aim to raise awareness and improve COPD care around the world.