Monopoly of Chinese drug trade opposed
Monopoly of Chinese drug trade opposed
By K. Basrie
JAKARTA (JP): Local merchants of Chinese traditional medicines have declared their opposition to a private firm's control over the importation of the popular medicines through a state- sponsored compulsory labeling system.
In an interview with The Jakarta Post yesterday, the merchants said they feared that PD Arvesco, controlled by politically well- connected businessmen Ari Sigit Soeharto and Yufandy Sujudi, would only want to collect huge profits by setting high prices for the Chinese medicines.
"It's a monopoly business, which will mean that people on low incomes will be unable to buy the medicines because of the high prices," said Gouw Tjong Liat, owner of the Dunia Baru drug store in downtown Kota, West Jakarta, which is home to dozens of Chinese medicine stores.
Other traders, who asked not to be identified, urged the government to review the existence of the labeling firm.
"We strongly protest against the business activities of the firm," said one of them.
"People can wait to buy cement if there is a sudden increase in its prices," another merchant said, "but, can you imagine what will happen if they are forced to wait to get a medicine just because they do not have enough money."
Gouw added: "I think there are still many promising business sectors available in this country which the firm could get involved in without having to disturb this small but humanitarian business."
Ida Binyanti, a director of PD Arvesco, told the Post by phone yesterday that the main aim of the firm was to strictly control the quality of the China-made medicines and the substances they contain.
"We're not a monopoly but the only authorized supplier for traditional medicines in this country as stipulated in an instruction letter issued by the ministry of health," she said.
The company, she said, had the right to collect medicines in the markets which have not been registered and are not tagged with official labels issued by the Ministry of Health.
Later, the medicines would be examined at the laboratory of the Ministry of Health, she said. Medicines which failed to meet the government standards would not be allowed to be sold at the legal markets here, while those passing the test would be labeled.
Arvesco will set the prices on the basis of a recommendation from the provincial health offices which have recently conducted a study on the matter, she said.
The firm is also appointed as the only authorized supplier of any imported traditional medicines.
Due to its position, many traders as well as importers of the China-made medicines are worried that the prices will be raised by the firm.
Traders said that even at the current prices many consumers were unable to buy the medicines.
"It's baseless to accuse us of collecting as much in profits possible," Ida said.
"We set the prices at only about 30 to 40 percent above than the import rate," she said.
But traders claimed yesterday that prices of some of the medicines which had "passed" Arvesco were twice the previous rate.
"Our main mission is to control the quality of medicines from China being sold here, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health," Ida said.
She said that a huge number of large and small-scale medicine factories had been set up in China over the past few years and this trend was a cause of concern to consuming countries like Indonesia. Consuming countries were concerned about the quality and the contents of the medicines, she said.
Worse of all, she said, many local traders and importers in Indonesia did not care about consumers' rights and the medicines' quality "as long as they can make a quick profit."
Imports of Chinese medicines have risen rapidly over the past few years, following the normalization of diplomatic ties between China and Indonesia in 1990.
A series of exhibitions of medicines and other export items from China have been held here since then.
Most of the medicines sold here are still labeled in Chinese and the labels do not include expiry date information.
Ida said that a number of fake medicines, which are difficult to identify, had been found on the local market.
"At the present time, there are too many medicines on the market here being claimed by the sellers to have come from China," Ida said.
Unfortunately, she said, only a few consumers can distinguish between the real medicines and the imitations.
Consumers were generally only able to discover that a medicine was fake after they had consumed it, she said.
"That's why we're here: to look after consumers' interests," she said.
Trader Gouw said: "Consumers have nothing to worry regarding our merchandise, because we all have direct contact with the producers of the medicines."