The Health Ministry’s Drug Administration Tuesday rejected proposals by several foreign pharmaceutical companies on procedures to approve requests to increase medicine prices.

At a meeting held by the Drug Administration in Hanoi Tuesday, representatives of foreign companies requested that the step of presenting material invoices when increasing CIF prices be dropped. They also asked the administration to base its approval for price increases on market prices at the exporting country instead of the CIF.

However, the administration confirmed that the companies would have to present material invoices as evidence for the increase of CIF prices if they want to increase medicine prices for that reason.

The administration also rejected the proposal to base its approval on market prices in the exporting country, saying these prices didn’t reflect the actual production costs, because the products might have been taxed or subsidized.

Many infringements on imported medicines have been detected in recent years including the quality of medicines and veracity of advertisements used to sell them, the administration said.

The Drug Administration Tuesday also announced measures to stabilize medicine prices in 2009 and pledged to ensure sufficient supply of medicines. It also said strict action would be taken against violations of the law in listing medicine prices.

The Health Ministry has confirmed that from this year, foreign invested companies and foreign companies without a commercial presence in Vietnam could import medicines but not distribute them.

The ministry also said they would cooperate with related agencies, both local and abroad, to fight against fake and low quality medicines.

Recent research found 0.24 percent of 14,300 medicines of domestic companies having increased their prices in 2008. Among 1,529 imported medicines, the rate was 1.09 percent.

The Vietnam News Agency reports Vietnam spent US$1.425 billion on medicines in 2008, which was 24.45 percent higher than 2007. Last year’s per capita spending on medicine was $16.45.

Domestic pharmaceutical companies posted sales of $715 million last year, supplying 50 percent of local demand.

Source: TN, VNA