Plan for cheap drugs faces strong criticism

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government's plan to launch branded medicines at cheaper prices in March does not constitute a solution to the skyrocketing prices of drugs, critics say.

Doctors, pharmacists, a legislator and pharmaceutical business representatives, said, during a discussion held by the Indonesian Doctors' Association (IDI) in Jakarta on Wednesday, that the Food and Drug Control Agency (BPOM) plan announced last month was burdened with personal interests.

Indonesian Pharmaceuticals Watch chairman Amir Hamzah Pane told the discussion that the government had trespassed on the domain of other professions as the BPOM no longer had the authority to set drug prices.

"The agency has no control over drugs prices whatsoever as its authority is only to suggest that the government remove the high import tariffs for drugs components in a bid to reduce production costs," he remarked.

Pane also expressed fears that the new policy would hurt the production of generic drugs, which are sold at prices between the cheaper plain generic medicines and the branded products.

BPOM's head Sampurno said earlier that the government was prepared to produce 20 medicines, ranging from antibiotics to analgesics under a project run by state-owned pharmaceutical company Indofarma.

Sampurno said that more efficient production methods would be able to cut prices of the drugs by 50 percent to 60 percent in comparison with similar patented drugs or other brands.

He said the cheap medicine production project, which is run without the government's subsidy, was aimed at keeping drugs prices in check and at deterring other producers from blaming expensive drug prices on the cost of imported drugs components.

A similar project would also be offered to other pharmaceutical companies, both state-owned and privately-owned, Sampurno said.

IDI executive Cholid Badri, however, asked "whether he (Sampurno) speaks as an official or as one of the commissioners of Indofarma" since there had yet to be any clarification on how such a policy was made.

Cholid's colleague, Mulyono, expressed fears that the policy was made to help Indofarma promote its new products.

House of Representatives' member Ahmad Sanusi Tambunan from Commission VII which supervises, among other issues, health, reminded the doctors not to allow themselves be made scapegoats for the government's failure to make drugs more affordable.

Indonesian Pharmaceutical Companies Association chairman Anthony Ch. Sunarjo said that "as long as the people have to pay their health care alone, without a credible insurance scheme or without the elimination of value added tax to the drugs, any price is expensive".