Pharmaceutical body to act against dishonest members
Pharmaceutical body to act against dishonest members
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers
Association has threatened to revoke the memberships of companies
proven to be colluding with doctors to rake in profits at the
public's expense.
Announcing the adoption of its new code of ethics here
yesterday, the association's chairman, Anthony Sunarjo, said the
revised code of ethics would allow the government to take further
action against aberrant members.
Anthony, however, admitted it would be hard for the
association to enforce the code: "The problems are complicated,
we can't arbitrarily blame a company and revoke its membership
just like that, we have to prove it has really colluded with
doctors."
The code of ethics was revised to help the association cope
with changes in the pharmaceutical industry. It will soon be
discussed with the Indonesian Medical Association.
"It takes two parties to collude," Tatong Suryanto, the
association's secretary-general said.
There are often complaints of commission-seeking doctors
urging their patients to use certain brands of drugs.
The code of ethics is revised every three years; the last
revision is noteworthy because it contains provisions for
sanctions against members colluding with doctors to sell drugs.
"The code of ethics is a very important tool in ensuring that
manufacturers do not harm the public for the sake of profit,"
Anthony told reporters.
The pharmaceutical association held a congress last month
which re-elected Anthony.
Tatong urged the public to file complaints with the
association's ethics council on collusion. "The council can't
take any action unless it receives a report," Tatong said.
Anthony admitted the inclusion of collusion in the code was
inspired by recent public uproar over collusion.
Consumers and health activists have raised the alarm over
continually increasing medicine prices.
Anthony rejected public opinion that medicines here are too
expensive. "According to our own recent study, the price of
medicine here is the second lowest, after Thailand, in Southeast
Asia," he said.
He criticized an earlier study by the Indonesian Consumers
Institute which said Indonesian drugs were too expensive for many
people.
"Annual per capita consumption of medicine in Indonesia is
US$5 a person," Anthony said.
The annual per capita consumption of medicine is $14 in the
Philippines, $12 in Malaysia, $42 in Singapore and $13 in
Thailand.
According to Ministry of Health data, there are approximately
250 medicine factories, 1,300 distributors, 4,000 pharmacies and
hundreds of thousands of drug stores in Indonesia. The prices of
the estimated 20,000 types of medicine on the market, most of
which are made locally, are considered high by many people. (ste)