11/12/2025
For the second year in a row, Tzu Chi Eye Center received 100 boxes of Acetazolamide as a donation from Filipino-owned pharmaceutical company SEA King Pharma Inc.
Karina Marapao, the company pharmacist, delivered the medicines to the Eye Center in Sta. Mesa, Manila on November 21. Tzu Chi Eye Center Medical Director Dr. Bernardita Navarro and Deputy Medical Director Dr. Susan Irene Lapid-Lim, together with Tzu Chi volunteers and staff, received the donation.
Acetazolamide is a drug used as an emergency measure to quickly lower dangerously high eye pressure and alleviate pain in glaucoma patients especially when eye drops are not sufficient. SEA King is currently the sole distributor of this particular brand of Acetazolamide in the Philippines. With an ongoing supply shortage of this medication, Marapao said the company management instructed them to secure the donation to the Eye Center before serving drugstores.
"We have read reviews so we know that many patients get treated here. It has always been our commitment to help patients. If others can support your cause, we also want to be a part of it," Marapao added. "Our wish is for all patients prescribed with these medicines to be able to take them for free."
SEA King Pharma initially donated to Tzu Chi Eye Center last year, after noticing one of the Eye Center's nurses regularly visit their office to purchase a few boxes of Acetazolamide. After learning that the medications were being used for charity, their Vice President for Operations expressed their willingness to contribute. A year later, this benevolence will continue to offer relief and hope to underprivileged glaucoma patients.
