Ministry mulls price control

NST: GEORGE TOWN: The Health Ministry will conduct a study on possible price control mechanisms for pharmaceutical products in the country. However, such mechanisms may not necessarily be the best solution to cheaper medicines.
Health Ministry parliamentary secretary Datuk Lee Kah Choon said yesterday the ministry would have to work out the best way to ensure Malaysians did not have to pay high prices for medicines.
"We want to see whether we can implement price control mechanisms without jeopardising the network we already have."
Lee was commenting on calls by pharmaceutical industry players for the ministry to control the prices of drugs in the country.
In the NST’s Letters To The Editor pages, they had urged the ministry to put a stop to price wars for drugs.
Lee said the ministry was monitoring the situation.
"We have an international indicator which we use to compare the prices of our drugs.
"We are constantly checking for differences."
News reports had quoted Universiti Sains Malaysia lecturer Dr Zaheer-Ud-Din Babar as saying that Malaysians may be paying the highest prices in the world for medicines, a finding the ministry dismisses as "misleading".
The 2005 study was conducted by Sedaya International University College and USM in collaboration with the World Health Organisation and Health Action International.
Zaheer had said doctors were marking up prices by up to 76 per cent for patented drugs and 316 per cent for generic drugs.
Pharmacies, the study found, marked up prices by up to 140 per cent for generic drugs and 38 per cent for patented ones.
The study was published by the Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal.
Meanwhile, Lee expressed confidence that Zaheer’s findings would not affect Malaysia’s medical tourism.
"Our procedures and treatments are some of the best in the world and we do not compromise on our quality."