Plan for cheap drugs faces strong criticism<\/p>\n
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The government's plan to launch branded medicines at cheaper
\nprices in March does not constitute a solution to the
\nskyrocketing prices of drugs, critics say.<\/p>\n
Doctors, pharmacists, a legislator and pharmaceutical business
\nrepresentatives, said, during a discussion held by the Indonesian
\nDoctors' Association (IDI) in Jakarta on Wednesday, that the Food
\nand Drug Control Agency (BPOM) plan announced last month was
\nburdened with personal interests.<\/p>\n
Indonesian Pharmaceuticals Watch chairman Amir Hamzah Pane
\ntold the discussion that the government had trespassed on the
\ndomain of other professions as the BPOM no longer had the
\nauthority to set drug prices.<\/p>\n
\"The agency has no control over drugs prices whatsoever as its
\nauthority is only to suggest that the government remove the high
\nimport tariffs for drugs components in a bid to reduce production
\ncosts,\" he remarked.<\/p>\n
Pane also expressed fears that the new policy would hurt the
\nproduction of generic drugs, which are sold at prices between the
\ncheaper plain generic medicines and the branded products.<\/p>\n
BPOM's head Sampurno said earlier that the government was
\nprepared to produce 20 medicines, ranging from antibiotics to
\nanalgesics under a project run by state-owned pharmaceutical
\ncompany Indofarma.<\/p>\n
Sampurno said that more efficient production methods would be
\nable to cut prices of the drugs by 50 percent to 60 percent in
\ncomparison with similar patented drugs or other brands.<\/p>\n
He said the cheap medicine production project, which is run
\nwithout the government's subsidy, was aimed at keeping drugs
\nprices in check and at deterring other producers from blaming
\nexpensive drug prices on the cost of imported drugs components.<\/p>\n
A similar project would also be offered to other
\npharmaceutical companies, both state-owned and privately-owned,
\nSampurno said.<\/p>\n
IDI executive Cholid Badri, however, asked \"whether he
\n(Sampurno) speaks as an official or as one of the commissioners
\nof Indofarma\" since there had yet to be any clarification on how
\nsuch a policy was made.<\/p>\n
Cholid's colleague, Mulyono, expressed fears that the policy
\nwas made to help Indofarma promote its new products.<\/p>\n
House of Representatives' member Ahmad Sanusi Tambunan from
\nCommission VII which supervises, among other issues, health,
\nreminded the doctors not to allow themselves be made scapegoats
\nfor the government's failure to make drugs more affordable.<\/p>\n
Indonesian Pharmaceutical Companies Association chairman
\nAnthony Ch. Sunarjo said that \"as long as the people have to pay
\ntheir health care alone, without a credible insurance scheme or
\nwithout the elimination of value added tax to the drugs, any
\nprice is expensive\".<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/plan-for-cheap-drugs-faces-strong-criticism-1447893297",
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