Up on website: K-P health ministry makes medicine rates public

Move aimed to ensure transparency

PESHAWAR: For the first time in the history of the province, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa health ministry has made a list of 500 different medicines and their rates public. The action was taken to make people aware of drug prices.

Officials said since a law was already in place and people could get the information by filing an application under the Right to Information Act, 2014, the ministry decided to ease the process for patients and make the prices of medicines public on the health ministry’s website.

An official told The Express Tribune that volunteers from the health ministry visited a number of pharmacies and collected information about medicines and their rates.

He added the data was gathered at the health ministry headquarters and it was decided to share actual prices of medicines.

The official said the public can now question chemists if prices at shops do not match those mentioned on the website. He added the move would also encourage competition.

“If there is no competition, companies will fix prices according to their own wishes. However, once a company compares its own prices to the competition, it will want to set lower rates to attract customers,” said Expanded Programme on Immunization Deputy Director Tahir Nadeem.

Nadeem added healthy competition will not only increase supply of the product, but also lower prices which will ultimately benefit the public. He added the Medicine Coordination Committee, after a detailed exercise, selected companies with lower product prices. He also confirmed that 60,000 field observers collected information from the open market.

When contacted, Minister for Health Shahram Tarakai said the efforts are a step towards the provision of quality drugs to the public.

“We attempted this last year, but could not see it though due to several complications. This time, however, we have completed the process as we want the public to know everything,” Tarakai told The Express Tribune. He added the ministry will purchase drugs required for patients.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2016.