President Dr Mohamed Muizzu has instructed relevant authorities to implement the existing laws for price control of medicines sold in the country, and to bring an end to the practice of selling medication with a large profit added on to the price.
President Dr Mohamed Muizzu has instructed relevant authorities to implement the existing laws for price control of medicines sold in the country, and to bring an end to the practice of selling medication with a large profit added on to the price.
In a post on social media platform X, the President said that the prices of prescription medication is currently sold with profits between 200 percent and 2000 percent. He stated that relevant authorities have been instructed to take measures to implement price control on medicine.
According to the President, this change would result in bringing down the wasteful expenses from State health insurance Aasandha as well, as it would bring down the market price and charges for Aasandha.
He said that the funds saved through taking this measure can instead be dedicated to further strengthening health services.
The details of this change would be announced soon, he said.
Earlier regulations published by the Health Ministry said that the maximum profit that can be taken from sale of medicine will be capped at 100 percent.
The previous government, too, made efforts to implement the stipulation in the Health Services Act to determine maximum retail price (MRP) on medicines. Although it was announced on several occasions, it ended up being delayed indefinitely with strong opposition from companies running pharmacies.
They initially planned to control the price of 357 medicines on the essential drugs lists of Maldives Food and Drug Authority. Then Finance Ministry said that this change alone would lead to savings of MVR 205 million.
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