GCC in drive to cut drug prices

Patients in Gulf oil producers will start paying less for medicine in 2014 when their governments begin purchasing drugs from abroad on a collective basis in a bid to cut costs, Bahrain’s health minister was quoted on Monday as saying.

Sadq Abdul Karim Al Shihabi said the GCC’s common purchasing policy would directly affect drug prices and this would be felt immediately by pharmacies and other drug stores in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

“The GCC countries will begin enforcing the common medicine purchase policy in early 2014 in a bid to unify drug prices…this will bring an end to price manipulation in the region, curtail price increases and end the suffering of patients,” the Minister said, quoted by the Saudi Arabic language daily Aleqtisadiah.

He said drug prices differ sharply in GCC members due to the large gap in their geographical size and populations.

Shihabi said GCC states—UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman—import nearly 75 per cent of their drug needs but added that there are plans to set up more drug manufacturing factories.

“This type of investment requires high technology and cooperation with international drug companies…several firms have shown interest in investing in this field and I believe that this will positively affect our relations with the West in drug production.”

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