Medicine in Jakarta to cost 15 percent more

Medicine in Jakarta to cost 15 percent more

JAKARTA (JP): Medicine is likely to cost an average 15 percent
more in Jakarta from December because of soaring costs of
imported raw materials, an industry official said.

Secretary of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association's
Jakarta branch, Syafruddin Saleh, said: "We are forced to raise
medicine prices due to the skyrocketing prices of raw material
imports."

"Since we have received abundant complaints about the hike of
medicine material prices from our members, medicine prices will
likely increase starting December," he said.

Syafruddin said the chaotic condition of the pharmaceutical
manufacturing industry was mostly due to the current monetary
crisis.

"The fall of rupiah against the U.S. dollar has forced us to
pay more for basic material imports. Manufacturers cannot
maintain current medicine prices," he announced at City Hall.

The association was now waiting for further developments in
the monetary situation, and instructions from the central
government on the matter, he said.

When asked about the fact that drug prices were in fact
already going up, he admitted that the association could not
control all traders' prices.

"Medicine prices in the city are still normal at present. If
there are hikes here and there, it must be due to the
manipulative actions of some traders," he said.

"We haven't been able to establish efficient supervision
management of drug prices," he said.

The association's data shows that there are 63 pharmaceutical
manufacturing companies, 271 distributors, 649 dispensaries and
327 drugstores in the city.

But City Health Office data says there are 470 drugstores in
the city.

Price hikes would not affect generic products subsidized by
the government, he said.

The government started campaigning to promote generic
medicines in 1992 to make medicine affordable for everyone.

The campaign was initiated because an estimated 20,000
medicines on the Indonesian market were considered too expensive
by many people.

Generic drugs, mostly produced by local manufacturers, are
said to be as good as non-generic medicines.

But a 1996 survey revealed that Indonesian doctors believed
foreign pharmaceutical companies produced more effective drugs
than local companies.

Most doctors (57.9 percent) said they would only use good
products that had passed clinical tests, which are performed by
foreign pharmaceutical manufacturers.

"We are trying to improve the quality of our medicines,"
Ruchiat, head of the association's city branch, said.

"And we urge people not to hesitate to buy generic medicines,"
he said.

Ruchiat said the association would hold a regional meeting on
pharmaceutical problems in Jakarta tomorrow, with the aim of
discussing further steps in the management and distribution of
medicines.

The meeting is expected to be opened by Governor Sutiyoso, he
said.

When asked about the fact that drugs bearing a "G" code (no
sale without prescription) were freely sold, he said that the
selling of these drugs was a criminal offense.

"A health ministerial decree states that medicine bearing the
"G" code is only allowed to be sold in dispensaries with the
assistance of pharmacists and with a doctor's prescription," he
said, adding that violators must be punished under law. (07)