Drug firms want higher prices for hospital contracts

Prices of pharmaceutical products, especially imported ones, are on the rise at HCM City drugstores but producers said their prices had remained unchanged and that they had even faced lost profits from sale contracts with hospitals.

Drugstores on streets such as Nguyen Tan Thanh, Nguyen Trai and Ham Nghi said prices of local drugs had not risen but imported products had surged. “Local prices are stable but may soar anytime soon,” a source from Huyen Si drugstore on Nguyen Trai Street.

A staff of the drugstore said prices of many imported products had jumped over 10%. Meanwhile, a drugstore on Ham Nghi Boulevard said prices of some local items had edged up slightly but the pace of rise would intensify soon.

Some pharmaceutical firms told they had planned to mark up their products because the U.S. dollar rise against the Vietnamese dong was eating into their earnings and that when their price hikes happened was undecided.

“Our prices have remained unchanged. Under the prevailing regulation, firms must ask the Vietnam Drug Administration for approval to revise up prices,” said Nguyen Thi My Hanh, deputy director of the marketing department of OPC Pharmaceutical Joint-Stock Company, which produces 160 products for the local market.

Other companies said prices of a couple of products had inched up and that for certain products, they had made little or no profit from their supply contracts with hospitals because the local market is 90% dependent on imported material and 50% on imported drugs.

“It is hard to adjust prices for hospitals’ contracts that are normally valid for one year, so continued profit losses are inevitable,” the director of a company said.

“We are sure the drug administration will not approve drug price increases because it’s a sensitive issue now,” he said, referring to the runaway inflation.

Though many pharmaceutical are in a quandary, they have refrained from offering higher prices in supply tenders for fear of competition. “Our company has no choice but to trim our profit and at the same time cut the cost to stay competitive,” he said.

The Vietnam Pharmaceutical Companies Association normally issues its monthly report on the local market on the 20th or 21st of each month but it on Monday said this month’s report would face a delay because it was still in the process of collecting data.

Tags: Drug prices