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Qatar: Medicine prices unlikely to come down soon

DOHA: The Supreme Council of Health ( SCH ) is expected to shortly allow new importers to bring medicines to the country from multiple sources, raising hopes of a fall in the prices in the not-so-far future.

The few wholesale dealers, who had been enjoying monopoly over the market for years, would rule the roost until the industry gets ready for open competition with an expected entry of new importers, say industry sources.

Prices of most medicines shot up by 10 to 25 percent over the past one month, following lifting of government control over pricing, as demanded by a set of newly issued laws.

The laws were intended to bring down the prices by liberalising imports and opening the market to competition, but the immediate result was a price hike, as dealers and pharmacies have been left free to fix the prices on their own. Many customers are taken by surprise due to variations in prices of several medicines in different pharmacies- a phenomenon that was totally unfamiliar to the industry.

"The same batch of medicines from the same manufacturer are sold at different prices at different pharmacies. There is a difference of more than QR10 in some cases," said a citizen.

Several pharmacy owners admitted the variations saying that they were no more bound to follow uniform prices.

"With lifting of government control over pricing, there are no uniform prices in the market. The wholesalers issue a price list and we decide the retail price based on that, considering our profit margin. There may be variations in the prices, as in the case of other commodities, but they will be narrowed down as the market matures for competition," said the proprietor of a pharmacy chain in Doha.

Industry sources believe that prices would come down in the near future as more products from multiple sources would be made available in the market with entry of new importers.

"We understand that anyone who possesses a proper facility to store the medicines and holds a "drug store licence" issued by the Pharmacy and Drug Control Department will be permitted to import medicines, subject to strict terms and conditions, especially related to quality of the imported products," said a wholesaler.

" The SCH may ask the new importers to provide the medicines at reasonable prices. This will trigger healthy competition in the market ultimately leading to a fall in the prices. If the importers don't pay attention to the SCH guidelines, it may even force the authorities to go back to the old system," he added.

The new laws have prevented the Pharmacy and Drug Control Department from intervening in fixing of the prices, but it can still regulate the market by forcing the importers and traders to stick to the SCH guidelines and standards.

© The Peninsula 2011