The high price of medicine will be burden patients’ relatives yet foreign-invested pharmaceuticals have announced price raises at a meeting with the Ministry of Health in Ha Noi on January 13.
Speaking at the meeting, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) representatives said that they had been stung by 20 percent inflation during 2008 in order to fulfill contractual obligations to supply hospital pharmacies. The price of some drugs has risen in during the second half of the year. The company pledged to keep imported drugs’ prices stable.
The company added that consumers expect to use high quality products and pay high prices to match that expectation. The price of GSK drugs stands at a high level. GSK has the second highest turnover in Vietnam.
The domestic market is home to 400 foreign pharmaceuticals whose prices are on the rise due to the increase of transportation costs, exchange rates and distribution system costs.
Though the health sector is regulated by agencies, some foreign businesses have raised prices without permission. In the first days of 2009, pharmaceutical companies announced price hikes of 5-10 percent.
The health sector said drug prices were kept stable last year. Out of 1,529 drug related items, 166 increased while 41 decreased, according to a survey carried out by authorities.
The survey did not fully reflect the situation as authorities only looked at ten percent of drugs from a total of 10,339 on the market.
The government also let businesses choose prices for imported medicines, and authorities will consider the price base compared with other countries similar to Vietnam’s economy and health issues.
The health sector has also not paid full attention to retail prices. The government cares about CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight) and wholesale prices, while retail prices are decided by retailers.
