KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Health (MoH) is still unable to establish an ecosystem to produce generic medicines.
Its Deputy Minister, Datuk Lukanisman Awang Sauni, said while the government had plans to produce them, the cost of manufacturing these generic or alternative medications would be prohibitively expensive in comparison to more developed nations such as India, which is already at the forefront of this industry.
"We have yet to reach a stage where we can establish such an ecosystem within the country.
"Nevertheless, we are committed to ensuring that the prices of these medications, as well as their procurement within the MoH, are regulated so that new medications can be obtained to offer more effective treatment," he said during the ministry's question and answer session today.
He was responding to Datuk Mohd Isam Mohd Isa's (BN-Tampin) supplementary question regarding the possibility of having alternative sources of medication that can be utilised and the ministry's plan to produce our generic medication.
Regarding the MoH's plan to stabilise or reduce the price of medicines for treatments such as depression, leukaemia and cancer, Lukanisman said these medicines were still distributed free of charge to its patients though the price of medicine is controlled by the supplier or producer of the medicine.
Meanwhile, he said drug prices were influenced by various economic factors such as foreign exchange rates, research and development costs, and manufacturing costs, and these factors were beyond the ministry's control.
He said that the MoH had implemented several measures to reduce drug procurement costs.
"The ministry has opted to procure drugs through a three-year contract. This approach benefits the government in several ways, such as firstly, saving government costs to obtain stable bid prices without price increases over three years.
"Secondly, the prevention of recurring procurement expenses, such as those associated with tender advertising; thirdly, enhanced contract monitoring; and fourthly, the avoidance of service or supply disruptions in the event of a new tender process," he said.
He was responding to Mohd Isam's original question regarding the ministry's response to forecasts of a five to 10 per cent increase in drug prices and pharmaceutical products that will financially strain patients and their families, especially those with chronic diseases.
Among the steps to reduce other costs, he said, was by conducting pooled procurement with teaching hospitals under the Higher Education Ministry and the Defence Ministry.
He said the procurement by these ministries is estimated to save RM179.6 million for the procurement period from 2020 to 2022.
Lukanisman said that drug subsidies for patients accessing MoH healthcare facilities remain unchanged to ensure that people are not burdened by any increase in drug costs.
He said drugs and medical devices were exempted from the recently announced Sales and Service Tax (SST) increase.
"For patients receiving treatment at private healthcare facilities, MoH also provides a consumer price guide to help people obtain price information and make price comparisons. This Consumer Price Guide can be found on the website www.pharmacy.gov.my.
"MoH is also studying the drug price transparency initiative, whereby private healthcare facilities identified are required to display drug prices as announced by the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) on Oct 3, 2023.
"This initiative can enhance people's access to competitively priced drugs and enable them to know the drug prices to be paid and thus make choices according to their abilities," he said.