The Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) has ordered all pharmacies to reduce the prices of certain products containing calcium and iron, an official announced recently.

The SFDA has sent a circular to pharmacies that they must cut the price of Osteocare and Feroglobin from SR96 to SR33 for a pack of 60 pills, and from SR45 to SR21 for a pack of 30, said the official, who did not want to be named.

He said the SFDA is working with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to check whether pharmacies comply. There would be penalties for violators. “Packs must show the new specified prices,” he said.

He said 90 percent of calcium and iron supplements are imported from Europe and the United States by Saudi importers.

Khaled Al-Usaimi, spokesman for the health department in the Eastern Province, said the Health Ministry does not set the prices of medicines and medical equipment. “The ministry had previously set the prices, but this is now the exclusive responsibility of the SFDA,” he said.

Al-Usaimi said the ministry also does not set the prices of baby milk, or check whether products have expired. These are the tasks of other government bodies, he said.

Several pharmacists and workers in the field said there is a shortage of calcium and iron products because of the huge demand in the Kingdom. European and American manufacturers have stopped exporting them because the authorities in the Kingdom have dropped the prices of these products, they claimed.

They said that Vruz is the only alternative for Osteocare and Feroglobin, priced at SR19 and coming in the form of capsules. They said most suppliers, in coordination with the manufacturers, have asked alternative products of the same quality and at lower prices.

Most international manufacturers of Osteocare and Feroglobin have shifted their export operations to Gulf and Arab countries. There are more than 7,000 pharmacies across the Kingdom employing over 13,000 pharmacists, with 90 percent non-Saudis. Each pharmacy sells about three to five packs a day.