GCC plans joint import of medicines at unified prices soon

The health authorities in the GCC countries may soon agree on a proposal to jointly import medicines at unified prices, a senior official of the Supreme Council of Health (SCH) has disclosed. A decision has already been taken to implement this proposal in the public health sector in the GCC countries and is likely to be expanded to the private sector by November, Director of the Pharmacy and Drug Control Department at SCH Dr. Aysha Al Ansari told Qatari Arabic daily (Al Sharq). "GCC states have agreed on joint import of medicines in the government sector and it would be approved for the private sector in the next meeting of the GCC health ministers in November," she said. Once the proposal is implemented, dealers in the GCC countries will be able to buy the medicines from the manufactures at unified prices. Unified tenders could result in reduced prices, benefiting the local dealers as well as the end customers. The official said the proposal is aimed at eliminating the wide disparities in the prices of medicines in different GCC countries and curb the smuggling of medicines from countries where the prices are low. She said, for instance, the prices are the lowest in Saudi Arabia, compared to other GCC countries because of the large market due to its population. She added that it would not be difficult to implement the new proposal since it has already been successfully tested in the public health sector in the GCC countries. The unified tender system, however, may not result in unified retail prices because the profit margin in each country would vary. The GCC secretariat has proposed a 45 percent cap on profit margin but each country can decide the margin on its own under this general guideline.