Medicine prices soar on higher costs

Retail prices of both locally-made and imported medicines, have sharply increased over the past few weeks, particularly in Hanoi and HCM City.

Producers and importers blame the price hikes on VND depreciation and higher operating costs.

The Hanoi Department of Health said, since early this year, it has received reports of numerous pharmaceutical companies raising their prices.

According to Dantri’s recent survey at a number of private drugstores in Hanoi, prices of 240 of 4,000 medicines had increased by anywhere between 3-30%, with the domestics seeing the highest rise.

Imported medicines such as Zinnat tablets 500mg are sold at VND28,000 (USD1.33) per tablet up from the previous price of VND25,000 (USD1.19), Augmentin at VND20,000 (USD0.95), up from VND18,000 (USD0.86) per tablet.

The price increases are mostly found among analgesic and cardiovascular medicines.

The owner of a drugstore in Cau Giay Street said, pharmaceutical firms have raised medicine prices several times so far this year with the rise of 10-20% for imported products. Prices of cardiovascular medicines like Cerebrolysin 10ml have been raised to VND96,600 (USD4.62) per tube from VND89,040 (USD4.26), Viatril – S is now sold at VND407.500 (USD1.84) from VND388.500 (USD18.58) per box.

The prices of locally-made products such as Bobina, used for hepatitis, have risen to VND55,000 (USD2.63) per box from VND40,000 (USD19.13), Kaminda to treat acne raised to VND72,000 (USD3.44) from VND48,000 (USD2.29) and particularly quick sticks branded Chip Chip for pregnancy detection increased to VND14,000 (VND 0.66), from VND9,000 (USD0.43).

The same situation is also seen in Ho Chi Minh City. A medical representative working for Zuellig Pharma was cited by Tuoi Tre as saying that the prices of five medicines imported from the German firm Bayer rose by 11-22% on March 21.

The prices of several others have increased by 6-13%.

Tien Tien Co Ltd, the exclusive distributor of Plusssz in Vietnam, have increased their prices for six kinds of medicines by 13%.

A company at the District 10 Pharmaceutical Centre on To Hien Thanh Street, Ho Chi Minh City, said the prices of 90% of domestic and foreign drugs sold at the Centre have increased by 5-7 percent this month. – Dantri

Tags: Vietnam medicine prices