After scrutinizing how pharmaceutical import companies and pharmacies at hospitals and clinics in Ho Chi Minh City and Ha Noi set their prices, Ministry of Health (MoH) inspector Tran Quang Trung, reported to Ministry officials yesterday that weaknesses still remain in the way the industry.
In the report, he recommended that stricter surveillance of the industry by the Government should be carried out and coordination between relevant agencies should be strengthened to achieve better results.
He also recommended that the Government set price limits in order to protect the consumer but do so in a way that would not be punitive to the industry.
The report also brought to light violations by six pharmacies relating to industry regulations, including expired business licenses and selling drugs without records of origin.
Most of the companies, moreover, did not keep receipts or did not put up prices of some drugs on a notice, so that differences between costs and markups would be difficult to track, thus making it easier to justify prices higher than normal.
