Materia Medica Malaysiana

Chua: Only 15 sen increase per packet or bottle

The maximum increase in price per packet or bottle of medicine and prescription drugs from May 1 will only be 15 sen, according to Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek.
Dr Chua said this in response to a news report yesterday that a 50 sen increase may result from the Health Ministry’s directive for all packaging of pharmaceuticals and traditional medicines to have security holograms to curb counterfeits.
“The cost per hologram label is 5.6 sen and with the labour cost added in, it would be a total of 15 sen at the most.
“However, there will be unscrupulous individuals who will raise their prices above this and blame it on the hologram,” he told reporters yesterday after launching TV3 and Pharmaniaga’s Bhd consumer awareness programme that educates the public on medicine.
Dr Chua urged pharmaceutical companies not to use the price increase as an excuse to gain more profits, adding that 300 companies had already made orders for the labels.
He said the ministry would not insist on pharmaceutical companies absorbing the extra costs, but if they choose to charge more for their products, “we only hope they will not increase the price unfairly.”
On the possibility that such holograms could be faked, Dr Chua said many things these days could also be faked, including money and credit cards.
“Just because it can be faked does not mean we should not use it or are not confident it won’t work.
“The use of hologram labelling was proposed in 2002 and that it should have been launched last year.
“However, after dialogues with stakeholders and pharmaceutical groups, we postponed it twice,'' he said.