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)