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)