Medicine mark-up

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Deputy chairman of Vietnam Pharmaceutical Companies Association Pham Van Quan said upward adjustment of drug prices had already taken place from late 2010 onward.  

The association’s recent survey of 103 pharmacies in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Danang city and Hau Giang province showed that 71 stores had raised the prices of some drugs with an average price hike of around five per cent.

“The local pharmaceutical market will be relatively stable in the coming time. However, the price of some medicines will increase slightly due to rising input cost and shaky exchange rates of Vietnam dong against other currencies,” Quan forecasted.

The prices of some imported drugs might be hiked also on the back of the volatile Vietnam dong-US dollar exchange rate. Similarly, the prices of some materials for producing antibiotics, antipyretics and anti-inflammatory drugs imported from China and India will continue going up.

Hanoi Central Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (Mediplantex), currently producing over 100 kinds of medicines, is considering a suitable price hike in the near term.

“Mediplantex will strive to keep prices stable until the Lunar New Year in early February. After that, the company will revise the price for half of our medicines with an average price hike of more than 10 per cent,” said the head of Mediplantex’s marketing department, Tang Minh Son.

Son added that most other pharmaceutical producers would soon raise their prices owning to soaring imported material costs and the volatile exchange rate. This was also due to hikes in packaging and other accessories costs.

In respect to why prices in Vietnam soared, general director and chairman at Vietnam Medical Products Import Export Joint Stock Company (Vimedimex) Nguyen Tien Hung said that it was chiefly because locally-made medicines could only satisfy half of consumer demands. Besides, local medicine manufacturers had to import up to 90 per cent of raw materials for production, which was highly susceptible to world prices.

To avoid massive price hikes and keep the local pharmaceutical market in check the Vietnam Drug Administration (VDA) has worked out several measures. Accordingly, VDA will step up inspection of medicine price quotations by pharmaceutical businesses through health-financial inter-sectoral workgroups and make the inspection results known to the public in a timely manner. Besides, it will also keep a close eye on the enforcement of state regulations on medicine price management and exercise sanctions on violators.

Ministry of Health reports showed that in 2010 average per capita consumption of medicine in Vietnam was $22.53, jumping 14 per cent against 2009. In respect to supply, total value of locally-made drugs hit $950 million, up more than 14 per cent and that of imported goods was around $1.2 billion, up 7.45 per cent compared to 2009’s.