Pharmaceutical drug prices to be regulated

by Carol Aloysius

The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) will regulate the prices of pharmaceuticals islandwide to ensure a uniform system of pricing for such items.

"In future, no pharmacy, importer or manufacturer of pharmaceuticals will be permitted to increase prices without our approval," CAA sources told the Sunday Observer. The practice for pharmacies and suppliers to decide on the prices according to their whims had led to much confusion and apprehension among the public.

Since there are many brands in one generic which are priced differently depending on the manufacturing practices and taxes, we have decided that the prices should be uniform for the same brand of each batch order. A gazette notification was issued early this year calling upon manufacturers and importers to mark the retail prices on each product.

Each batch of pharmaceuticals carries its own batch number and that means each batch will have to carry uniform prices".