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MRP List: Pharmaceutical industry being torn asunder
Major concerns are still being expressed across the country by doctors as well as patients over the “rushed” implementation by the Government of a price-control mechanism for 48 drugs, while grave rumblings are occurring within the pharmaceutical industry.
As harried patients on long-term drugs went hither and thither looking for their quotas, the more affluent ones stockpiled the drugs, buying the medications on their prescriptions in bulk, the Sunday Times understands.
Even three weeks after the October 21 midnight Gazette announcing a Maximum Retail Price (MRP) for 48 drugs, normalcy had not returned to the drug market. The drugs coming under the MRP model include oral suspensions, tablets, capsules, inhalations and an injection. They are drugs prescribed for bacterial and viral infections; diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, for heart attacks, thyroid issues, mental illness, seizures, asthma, gastritis, osteoporosis, to halt vomiting, prevent worm infestation and also non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
“No grace period was given for the implementation of the MRP causing disarray in the drug market. To add insult to injury, we hear that raids are to be carried out by the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) on complaints being made to the hotline set up at the Health Ministry,” a source within the pharmaceutical industry told the Sunday Times, adding that it is a “bitter pill” that the government was pushing down their throats.
This is as most pharmaceutical companies, both big and small, remained tightlipped. Across the board, they refused to comment on the MRP, most probably, fearing reprisals including the “blacklisting” of their companies over some innocuous matter.
However, the Sunday Times learns that the pharmaceutical industry is being torn asunder with allegations to and from of some currying favour with the authorities and getting their products removed from the MRP List at the last minute.
“There are lots of issues in the pricing structure,” a source said, on condition of anonymity. Firstly, the quality of drugs, the biggest problem in Sri Lanka, has not been considered. By the time laboratory testing facilities are strengthened, the market would be flooded by poor-quality drugs.
“This is just a ruse to get rid of pharmaceutical companies which have a reputation to safeguard, so that politicians who have mushrooming drug companies, of course, under front organisations can make huge profits,” said another source.
There is a lot of bickering within the industry, the Sunday Times learns, with arguments that the MRP List has been manipulated to hit the “biggies” in the industry, while allowing the “smallies” who bring in substandard drugs from any source have been conveniently left out.
Some of these small importers buy drugs for as little as 25 cents each from questionable sources of production and sell them at Rs. 1.50, a disgusted source grumbled, adding that many of them make as much as 300% profits. Price control has not touched them.
The market leaders may or may not leave the country, but Sri Lanka has certainly paved the way for cheap drugs to flood in, stressed another source.
In contrast several others, meanwhile, pointed fingers at the big pharmaceutical companies, alleging that some of them seem to have influenced the authorities to take their products off the MRP List.
This was an allegation echoed by numerous doctors as well who claimed that the Government is always accusing doctors about giving in to the pressures of the pharma industry, but the MRP List indicates that it too seems to have been influenced by the industry.
“Why was the anti-diabetic drug glimepiride with a large market-share, which was in the original MRP List removed,” asked a perturbed industry source, adding that in its place glipizide with a smaller market-share has now been included.
Another source said that all three categories of metformin (500mg tablet, 500mg sustained release tablet or capsule and 850mg tablet) used in the treatment of diabetes have been included in the MRP List, while only gliclazide’s 80mg, although there are other strengths as well, has been brought under price-control.
Strangely, insulin has not been included in the MRP List. Why, is the question that the authorities need to answer immediately, if the process has been transparent and widely discussed with all stakeholders, the source added.