The Drugs Administration of Viet Nam has instructed health
departments nationwide to increase inspections of wholesale medicine prices
registered with agency as part of the Health Ministry’s measures to curb price
rises.

Customers buy medicine at a drugstore on Ha Noi’s Giai Phong Road. Pharmaceutical companies have been increasing prices due to changing foreign exchange rates and rising raw material costs. (Photo: VNS)

The move
comes on the heels of a recent inspection by the drug administration which found
that a number of businesses had sold medicines at unreasonably high prices or
had amended medicine prices without reporting the increases to the ministry.

Health
departments were instructed to require pharmaceutical producers and importers to
report their registered medicine prices so departments could audit retail
prices.

Meanwhile, medicine producers and importers were required to undertake a review
of their prices and provide a report to the administration on their medicine
price levels and retail sale prices.

Businesses found to have registered unreasonable price medicine rates would be
required to adjust their pricing to conform and resubmit them to the
administration for consideration.

All
reports needed to be submitted to the administration before Friday for
consideration.

Many
businesses had been found to have increased drug prices, but had escaped
punishment because the prices were still within their registered rates, said
Chief Inspector of Ha Noi Health Department Nguyen Viet Cuong.

The
department has recently reported that the prices of 240 out of 4,000 drug items
have increased by between 3 and 30 per cent but about 70 per cent of the drug
items were still being sold at retail prices below the registered level.

Director
of northern Ha Nam Province’s Health Department Nguyen Lap Quyet said the
department had co-operated with relevant forces to inspect pharmaceutical
businesses in the province, particularly private businesses, following the
request from the health ministry.

“Inspecting registered medicine prices is a first step in defining whether
businesses are abiding by the registration regulation or not, allowing us to
compare the registered price rates and retail prices to uncover over-charging,”
he said.

“Any
businesses found to have made sudden medicine price changes will have their
products revoked and their products banned from distribution or even have their
business licence revoked depending on the level of infringement.”

However,
Quyet admitted that inspectors had encountered many difficulties in inspecting
medicine prices as it was difficult to check the real sale prices of businesses
while the number of inspectors was limited.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News