Pharmacists criticize govt's 'self-dispensing' policy
YOGYAKARTA (JP): The Association of Indonesian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers here criticized the government's "self-dispensing" policy, saying it threatened the existence of drug distributors and drugstores.
The policy, which will see general practitioners directly provide generic drugs to their patients, has no sound basis if it is meant to help lower the retail prices of generic drugs, according to the association.
The association claimed that prices of generic drugs were already low enough and that there was ample supply in the market.
"Besides, direct provision of medicines by doctors will not necessarily lower drug prices," the association's secretary- general, Mudji Rahadi, said here yesterday.
Last week, the Ministry of Health endorsed the self-dispensing policy as a measure to cut the prices of generic drugs, which have seen a 150 percent hike since the monetary crisis hit the country in July last year.
Prices of patent drugs have reportedly increased by up to 300 percent.
Generic drugs account for about 80 percent of prescribed medications.
Mudji argued that another weak point of the policy was that although self-dispensing may apply only to generic drugs, in practice there was no guarantee that doctors would not prescribe trade mark drugs which would still increase the cost of medicines.
Mudji said the association could tolerate the self-dispensing policy as long as it was applied only in remote areas where drugstores were too far away for patients to reach.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Yogyakarta branch of the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI), Adam Suyadi, said not all doctors agreed with the self-dispensing policy.
"There are doctors who feel burdened since it means they will have to store their own drugs and other pharmaceutical equipment.
"A doctor's job is to diagnose, not dispense drugs," he said.
The central board of IDI in Jakarta on Monday expressed support for the policy, saying it could significantly reduce the price of drugs. (23)