Medicine Prices to Keep Rising in Vietnam May
Drug prices in the Vietnamese market are forecast to continue rising in May due to on-going increases of input costs, especially imported materials, state media reported May 6, citing the Ministry of Health (MoH)’s sources.
The estimation follows the ministry’s recent report which indicated that medicine prices in the domestic market have increased 8.93 per cent since early 2007, said the Vietnam Drug Administration.
Drug traders and producers forecast that there will be sudden drug price hikes after June. The MoH has asked them to keep prices unchangeable in line with the government’s instruction to constrain the country’s rising inflation rate.
Price increases are inevitable because 90 per cent of drug production materials in Vietnam are imported and nearly 50 per cent of medicines in the market are imported also.
This year, Vietnam is estimated to import US$700 million worth of medicines, equaling the figure of 2007.
Currently, imported medicines account for 65 per cent of the domestic consumption annually. Antibiotic medicines make up 30 per cent of the total demand for pharmaceutical products.
The country aims to raise its drug production capacity to meet 60 per cent of local demand by 2010 and 80 per cent by 2015. (New Hanoi, Capital Security)
Vietnamese
