Dubai: The Ministry of Health has reduced prices of 142 innovative medicines.
The price reductions, ranging from two to 66 per cent, will come into effect from January 1, officials said on Monday.
It was the sixth price reduction initiative, which will cover drugs of 24 pharma companies in the UAE. These medicines target a variety of ailments and conditions such as ear, nose and throat, central nervous system, endocrine disorders, eye, vaccines, immunosuppressants, gynaecology, urinary tract infections, anaesthesia and nutrition.
Announcing the reductions, Dr Ameen Al Amiri, Assistant Undersecretary for Public health policy and licensing at the Ministry of Health, said: “We started the price reduction initiative in 2011 after a study indicated that the UAE in comparison to five other countries in the region such as Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain had the highest prices.”
“We want to improve health care and make medicines accessible to the lowest income group person who may not have an insurance cover. This is a strategic initiative demonstrating a very fruitful collaboration between pharma companies and the Ministry of Health and is based on a voluntary policy of price reduction so that all stakeholders in health care — patients, pharmaceuticals, health care providers, health ministry and the insurances benefit from this and eventually it leads to better health care outcomes for out country,” he added.
Dr Al Amiri said that with this initiative the UAE had one of the lowest prices of medical drugs in the GCC region. “Nearly 80 per cent of our innovative medicines are priced the lowest in the region. By the seventh initiative which we plan to introduce in June 2016 we would have covered price reduction in all innovative drugs after which we intend to introduce price reduction in the generic drug categories too. However, since the generic drugs are already priced low, the percentage decrease might not be too drastic.”
Dr Al Amiri explained the dynamics of price reduction and why the pharma companies had voluntarily adopted this initiative.
“Price reduction does not mean any compromise on the quality of the drug as we are very rigid about not allowing even a change in packaging or change in wording on the packaging after price change. However, in the UAE, any international innovative medicine which receives a clearance by the US or Europe FDA is made available within three weeks whereas the same drug can be made available in neighbouring countries in three years. The pharma companies can see that although profits may be cut with price reduction, instant permission to market the drugs in the UAE helps them get a return on their investment and as lower prices make the medicines available to all the sales volumes make up for any profit reduction. It is a win-win situation for all stakeholders as patient access to medicines improves.”
