Govt to reduce medicine prices to affordable levels
Govt to reduce medicine prices to affordable levels
JAKARTA (JP): The government moved yesterday to alleviate
public outcry over the soaring prices of generic drugs, promising
to gradually reduce them to an affordable rate.
"Insya Allah (God willing), we will slash generic drug prices
starting next week," Minister of Health Sujudi told reporters
during a break in a hearing with the House of Representatives'
Commission VI for health and social services.
Sujudi said the free fall of rupiah against the U.S. dollar
had caused medicine prices to soar, but reiterated the
government's plan to subsidize hospitals and drugstores'
purchases of generic drugs. The government will also help state-
owned pharmaceutical companies to buy ingredients at lower rates.
The move is expected to help reduce the prices of generic
drugs, which have soared up to 150 percent over the past two
months.
Sujudi failed to mention by how much the reduction would be
made, but the newly installed director general for medicine and
food supervision, H. Sampurno, said his office was still
calculating new prices that will meet the public's purchasing
capability.
"We are still calculating the new prices using the real value
of the rupiah against the dollar to find the exact rate that will
be affordable for the public," he said yesterday.
He indicated the new prices would likely be a return to the
rate that was set by the government in January, before their
significant increase over the past few weeks.
The government increased generic drug prices by 50 percent
last month. Following the steady depreciation of rupiah against
the dollar, the government again raised the price by 100 percent
earlier this month.
The price hikes have upset many people, who found suddenly
they could not afford to buy generic drugs, which used to be sold
cheaper than patent drugs. The latter's price have reportedly
soared by up to 300 percent.
It has been reported that some hospitals and drugstores in
Jakarta and its surrounding areas have run out of generic drugs,
causing many people to panic.
Sujudi said he has ordered the 47 state-owned pharmaceutical
companies to distribute any available stock of generic drugs.
"If we only spend money for subsidizing while the drugs are
not available in the market, the prices will remain very high,"
said Sujudi.
He said supply is sufficient for the next four months.
Sujudi also said the government has imported drug ingredients
and some emergency medical equipment, including for blood
transfusions, anesthetics and kidney dialysis, with a Letter of
Credit worth US$58 million issued recently.
The purchases are expected to arrive next month and be
adequate for the next three months.
He said that local drug manufacturers would continue to
produce generic drugs until the end of March using the imported
ingredients. (09)