The Drug Administration’s advice aims to deal with a situation caused by the refusal of pharmaceutical distributors to supply the drugs as contracted, either because the prices are below current market levels, or because rising costs have made the contracted prices untenable.
Truong Quoc Cuong, head of the Drug Administration under the Ministry of Health, told Thanh Nien that some hospitals including the Central Children Hospital, the Central Obstetrics Hospital, and Hanoi-based Huu Nghi Hospital have reported difficulties in obtaining supplies of some drug items.
Cuong affirmed that the drug industry did not lack stocks of the needed medicine.
He said the shortage in hospitals has been caused by drug distributors who are deliberately delaying the supply, or providing it in small quantities because contracted prices were lower than current market prices.
Under the contracts signed with the hospitals by many drug companies early in 2008, the prices remain unchanged for 6-12 months.
But drug manufacturers and importers say they have had to struggle with rising costs over the last few months.
Some companies have actually reneged on their contracts and accepted penalties rather than suffer losses by supplying drugs at the previously agreed price, Cuong said.
After a price freeze imposed in March was lifted in June, the government allowed prices on some drugs to be increased.
In Ho Chi Minh City, prices have increased by 1-3 percent, according to health officials.
At Hanoi pharmacies, the prices of many items, including antibiotics, vitamins and tonics, have risen by at least 5 percent.
In July, the government worked on proposals submitted by 30 pharmaceutical firms who sought price hikes for 352 imported drugs and asked for clarifications for about 330 of them.
Cuong said his office made the proposal after some health departments in Hanoi, HCMC, and Da Nang City applied the measures and found them effective.
Reported by Lien Chau |
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