Deputy Health Minister Cao Minh Quang said the government agreed to raise drug prices but the price hikes would be implemented in specific stages for different types of drugs.
He said 30 pharmaceutical companies, including manufacturers and importers, were seeking approval to raise prices for more than 780 drugs.
Each company will only be permitted to adjust prices on between five and seven products and increases must be below 10 percent, Quang stressed.
The cost of medicine is still under control, meaning prices would not soar for all medicines at once, he added.
Inflation has hit drug companies hard, with statistics showing around 25 companies who were set to supply drugs to hospitals abandoned their contracts and accepted a penalty of 10-20 percent of the total cost of what they were going to supply.
These companies said the fines were lower than the losses they would suffer if they supplied the hospitals with the medicine at the agreed-upon price.
Some local drug companies have reduced products by 15-20 percent due to rising production costs and soaring input prices.
Reported by Lien Chau |
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