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Sunday, April 19, 2015

Regulate prices of medicine now, DAP lawmaker tells Putrajaya

A DAP lawmaker urges Putrajaya to start regulating the price of medicine as citizens are overpaying for them. – AFP file pic, April 19, 2015.A DAP lawmaker urges Putrajaya to start regulating the price of medicine as citizens are overpaying for them. – AFP file pic, April 19, 2015.Putrajaya must immediately regulate prices of medicine, DAP MP Charles Santiago said today, as healthcare costs escalate following the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST).
Santiago said that even without GST, studies had shown that Malaysians were paying more for the same drugs than countries such as Australia, India and Sri Lanka.
This was because Malaysia lacked pricing regulation for medicine, he said, citing a 2012 article in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Services titled “A study comparing retail drug prices between northern Malaysia and Australia”.
“The comparative study showed that Malaysians are paying way above their counterparts in the developed world.
“This is because Malaysia lacks drug-pricing regulations, which could place limits on prices and profits of pharmaceutical firms, such as in Australia.”
He said the study also revealed that Malaysian retail pharmacies marked up prices by about 25% to 38% on innovator brands and 100% to 140% on generic medicine, while the price for medicine varies across the country.
Unlike Malaysia, countries such as France and Italy regulate their prices of medicine, said Santiago, adding that Britain’s National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Authority monitors prices through the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation, which controls prices of drugs by regulating profits from sales.
He said the study also found that Putrajaya’s effort to privatise drug distribution system for public hospitals led to a 30% increase in medicine costs.
“In fact the article notes that ‘free market economy’ in the management of medicine in Malaysia had placed monopoly of medicine sales in the hands of manufacturers, distributors, doctors and pharmacists.
“And it appears that business interests and profits dominate the different stages of production and distribution chain resulting in high medicine prices.”
Santiago, who is also the Klang MP, said the government must address this issue in the 11th Malaysian Plan, which seeks to tackle poverty from a multi-dimensional perspective, including income, access to education, healthcare and living conditions.
“Two challenges confront Wahid as he plans to address access to health care and poverty,” said Santiago, referring to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar.
“First, the introduction of a medicine pricing policy and price monitoring system that will make affordable and lower priced medicine possible, consistent with the government’s 2009 National Medicines Policy.
“Second, efforts must be made to remove all forms of state capture of government procurement of medicine by cronies. Eliminating cronies from using their political influence to secure privatised projects could lead to lowering of drug prices.”
He said that GST has put the price of drugs and other medical services, including hospitalisation, beyond the reach of Malaysia’s middle class and poor.
“For example, a person with HIV who is paying RM2,190 for life-saving medicine will incur a further RM130 expenditure in GST payment on a monthly basis.
“And we have not considered the cost of medical care and life-saving medicine for people with cancer and other medical conditions such as diabetes, mental health and hypertension, which are high in the country.”
Yesterday, The Malaysian Insider reported that Universiti Malaya Medical Centre’s (UMMC) RM120 million budget cut this year is causing concern among several doctors over the hospital's ability to give adequate treatment to patients.
They worry that patient care would be compromised after the teaching hospital's budget for 2015 was reduced to RM387 million against an expenditure of RM510 million last year.
And as a teaching hospital, the cut would also affect the quality of education provided to medical students.
- TMI

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