Prices of pharmaceutical products in the Kingdom, notably medicines of acute and wide-spread diseases such as diabetics and high blood pressure, are skyrocketing, according to the Ministry of Health.
Medicine prices are also higher than in other MENA countries for the same products. For example, medication for diabetics produced by the same company sold in Saudi Arabia for a price that is 19 times higher than it is in Turkey.
According to Al-Madinah, the Arabic daily newspaper, diabetic medicine is sold in the Kingdom at SR215 as compared to SR11 in Turkey.
Medication for gastric acid reflux is sold at SR218 in the Kingdom as compared to SR61 in Turkey.
Several patients at different hospitals in Riyadh told Arab News that the costs of medication in the Kingdom are far higher as compared to other countries in the region though the medicines are produced by the same company.
Responding to inquiries raised by the Arabic daily, a local citizen said, “existence of price difference between one country and another is logic but, however, illogical if the difference is reaching up to 20 times for the same medication produced by the same company.”
Such medications are used by the one-quarter of the Kingdom’s population, causing them worry.
According to the data released by the Diabetics Patient Society, 28 percent of the Saudi people are suffering from diabetics.
They have called for the protection from the greedy tendency shown by medicines dealers saying that the humanitarian face should be given importance rather than being purely business matter and exploitation of the pressing need of patients.
A patient at King Fahd Medical City (KFMC) said, “the medical and health side must be paid by humanitarian action.” He added that there is urgent need for these drugs that most doctors writes specifically its trade name and its cost should be rationalized across the GCC countries.
A mechanism to standardize medicine prices in member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is expected to be put in place by November, ahead of a meeting of Gulf Health Ministers early next year.
The entire scheme is aimed at reducing and maintaining uniform prices of medicines and profit margins across the GCC countries.
The project will be implemented in stages and that the complete process for arriving at an agreement for uniform pricing may take more than four years The lengthy delay is caused by medicine pricing guided by three factors: import price, agents’ pricing policy and the company price of the drug. These factors will be considered so as to reach a standardized imports procurement price for Gulf states.
Ibrahim Abdulaziz Al-Za’aqi, head of Pharmacy Care Unit at King Saud Medical City (KSMC), said the prices of medicines are normally fixed by the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (FDA) and not by the agents or pharmacies with the exception of the prices of cosmetic products.
He said prices of medicines are governed by the economy of the country where some pharmaceutical companies sometimes insist to have specific prices, which lead to difference of prices between Arab and Islamic countries.
“Control and regulatory bodies have key role to play in this regard,” he said. Dr. Salih Sulaiman Al-Harbi, the consultant of Communal Medicine at Riyadh Health Directorate, said that the major reason for price hikes could be linked to the price of the US dollar, which, he said, has direct effect on the most of European medicines. He also called for an awareness campaign to convince citizens and residents to look for alternative medicines.
Saudi med prices far exceed other countries
