Medicine Prices are too High in Malaysia

By Stephen Ng 

        I strongly urge the Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim to look into the medicine prices in Malaysia. 

        Medicine is important to ensure the wellbeing of all Malaysians, and if the prices are beyond the abilities of the ordinary Malaysians to afford, many end up having to exhaust their hard-earned savings at old age.

        In an article dated July 27, 2006 which I wrote in Bernama (see attached), a survey carried out by a university lecturer, Zaheer Ud-Din Babar showed that “the price of medicines in Malaysia is much higher than even in developed countries."

        That was back in 2006; ever since then, prices of medicine have never gone down. 

        What is the use of giving the senior citizens special discounts on public transport services and cost of living allowances, but medicine prices are still high?

       Even when medicines are obtained from the government hospitals, the government of the day still has to bear the cost of dispensing the medicines at subsidised prices.

        At the end of the day, who is benefiting from the higher prices of medicine? Why has nothing been done since Zaheer's research was first brought to public eyes?  

        According to Zaheer, in the private retail pharmacies, prices of branded medicines “could be as high as 16 times the IRP and 10 times for generic drugs." IRP refers to the International Reference Price. 

        Based on the survey which was conducted by two universities covering the four major cities, Penang, Johor Baharu, Kota Baharu and Kuala Lumpur, the Median Price Ratio of generic drugs is still about six times that of the IRP.”

        In countries such as Sri Lanka and India, the Median Price Ratio of generic drugs are lower than two times that of the IRP, but in Malaysia, our MPR is twice that of IRP.  

        With the number of cases where senior citizens have to depend on medicines such as for hypertension and depression, the patented medicines are highly priced especially when there are no generic alternatives. 

        The report also showed that government hospitals are also not spared of high medicine prices.

        The research also found out that the Innovator Brand fluoxetine which is used for curing depression, the highest Median Price Ratio is 31.06 that of the IRP while the antibiotic ciprofloxacin, in the retail pharmacy has a Median Price Ratio of 111.63 times of the IRP.

        Back in 2006, former Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said that his ministry would regulate and monitor the prices of medicines used for the treatment of hypertension, diabetes and flu. However, it is more than just these three types of medicine.

        For example, in a case that I know of, because of the girl’s statelessness and her long term illness, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), the family has to fork out about RM800 every month for medicine and blood tests. The father is only a small-time plumbing and electrical subcontractor. 

        Therefore, I urge the Prime Minister to once again take a serious look at the medicine prices in Madani Malaysia.