The price of medicine

The price of medicine
7th Dec. 2006
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2006/12/07/price-medicine.html

Both of the letters in The Jakarta Post from Philip Townsend were quite interesting. He blames the middleman in one, the physicians in the other, and no one else.
To eliminate overcharging, the pharmaceutical companies should print the maximum retail price on each medicine. This is obligatory in India.
One wonders why a tube of Canesten, a skin ointment, costs the equivalent of U.S. 5 cents per gram in India but 25 cents per gram in Indonesia. Both versions are manufactured by the same multinational company.
Similarly, 500-milligram tablets of Glycophage cost five times more here then their equivalent, Glycomet, does in India. Daonil in 5-milligram tablets costs 17 times than its Indian equivalent. Pioglar 15 costs 6.5 times more.
Interestingly, the generic Metformin and Glibenclamide both cost about the same here as the branded variety in India. Why is there so much difference between the costs of generic and branded medicines? And why do Indonesian doctors not prescribe generic medicines as Townsend suggests?
Thanks to the printed prices on the medicines, Indian pharmacies sell medicines at the proper prices. On the other hand, the Indonesian customer is blissfully ignorant about what the price of the medicine should be.
We desperately need to determine who is primarily responsible for the higher costs of medicines. Some NGO should take up this issue. The government should also step in to curb the retail prices of medicines.
Indians will remain ever grateful to the late Indira Gandhi, who forced the pharmaceutical industry to print and charge fair prices. By and large, all the pharmaceutical companies in India are still doing well.
I feel President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will win another, bigger landslide victory in his quest for a second term if he earns the gratitude of millions of Indonesians who cannot afford medicines.
K.B. KALE, Jakart
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ost Comments | Comments (1)
Capt.R.W.de Jong, Bogor | Thu, 16/12/2010 - 19:12pm
I do think that that is NOT the task of the President,but the Health Minister,on which he depends to be fully informed,with elas in this large country is very difficult and if informed-too late......
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