Pharmaceutical merchants deaf to ban on price increases

In spite of the fact that the Drug Administration of Vietnam (DAV) has prohibited pharmaceuticals producers and drugstores to raise prices, consumers’ medicine costs have been quietly escalating.

The latest survey conducted from December 20, 2009 to January 20, 2010 by the Vietnam Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Association (VPMA) showed that 32 foreign-made medicines out of 5,760 surveyed products (0.55 percent) have increased in price by 5.1 percent. Meanwhile, seven items (0.12 percent) have risen by five percent on average.

VPMA believes that the medicine prices have been increasing because the demand has risen during the cold weather season.

Saigon Tiep Thi reporters conducted their own survey of the Hanoi market. They found that retail prices for many kinds of medicines have increased. Lacteolfort, for example, has risen from 12,000 dong 13,000 dong per pack, Augmentin from 14,500 to 15,000 dong and Otrivin from 29,000 to 32,000 dong per box.

Despite DAV orders, drugstores have still raised prices on many kinds of medicine, including popular ones such as Efferalgan, Amoxicilin, Ampicillin, Berberin, Pommade and children’s medications.

VPMA thinks the market will stabilize in the time to come and price fluctuations will not be big. The association also asserted that future prices will still depend on the costs of import input materials and the dong/dollar rate. The prices of some imported items may increase due to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations.

In a recent talk with the local press, DAV Head Truong Quoc Cuong maintained that he had heard rumors that there is no relation between the gold price and that of medicine. However, Cuong claimed that the drug price always increases when gold does.

In an effort to curb price increases, the watchdog agency has requested producers to take all necessary measures to cut production expenses and help stabilize the drug market. However, it seems to be impossible to prevent the drug price increases, especially at Tet.

In December 2009, Vietnam imported $55.2 million in medicines, a decrease of 44 percent over November, raising total medicine import revenues in 2009 to $1.1 billion, up by 6.9 percent compared with the same period of 2008.

France and India remain the biggest drug suppliers to Vietnam in 2009 with import turnovers of $193 million and $148.6 million respectively.

VietNamNet/SGTT, TBKTVN

Tags: Vietnam pharmaceutical market