Several pharmaceutical enterprises in Vietnam have been accused of purposefully producing medicine with a higher drug content than necessary to raise prices of their products, according to the Vietnam Insurance Agency. The claims have arisen following the agency’s inspections of medicine which won bid to be supplied to state-owned hospitals in nine provinces and cities. At least 20 kinds of medicine, mainly the antibiotics and pain relievers, have unusually high drug content. Many of these pills have been sold at five-fond increases in the prices of medicine that contains similar active elements. For example, Cefalexin antibiotics containing a drug content of 350mg produced by the Merap Vietnam Group are sold at hospitals for VND1,400 ($0.067) per pill. However, the similar made by other rivals containing 250mg are sold at only VND470. The pharmaceutical companies are believed to have increased drug content despite having no medical benefit in order to differentiate their products from rivals and therefore sell them at a higher price. At a recent meeting, a representative from the Merap Vietnam Group claimed that their medicine was produced with higher drug content to meet the demands of treatment. The group explained that surveys showed doctors tended to prescribe increased doses and therefore pills with higher drug content would provide them with more options when making prescriptions. Merap Vietnam Group has been asked to report on their bidding process in Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Binh Thuan provinces. The Drug Administration of Vietnam will review all drugs with abnormally high content and report the situation to the Ministry of Health’s Medicine Approval Council. Director of the agency’s Pharmaceutical and Medical Facilities Department, Vu Xuan Hien, admitted that all the suspected medicine contained normal active elements and was legally licensed and approved for circulation by the ministry. He added that the agency would work with the ministry to adjust drugs prices after collecting information from provinces and cities. In an amended draft law on pharmaceutical submitted to the National Assembly recently, the ministry proposed that the government should set up an interagency council to manage medicine prices to curb rising prices. (Vietnam News July 11)
