A Consumer Council of Fiji survey has revealed that some pharmacies in the country are imposing mark-ups on medicine as high as 460 percent.    

The key finding in price analysis for individual medications showed that 30 out of the 47 pharmacies surveyed or 57 percent of the pharmacies charged higher prices for the same brand of medicine, same batch number, expiry date and same quantity.

According to the council, their survey has also shown that despite prescription medicines being under price control within the maximum percentage mark-up of 35 percent, the trade margins are much higher.

Mark-ups ranging from 95 percent to more than 400 percent were notices in the survey for several types of basic medications used by the members of the public.

Prices are much higher in the Western division when compared to the Central division and the Northern division.

According to Council Chief Executive Premila Kumar, the price variation is less in the Northern division which means there is limited competition.

In this area of survey, the council used the prescription of a pack of seven medicines for an elderly male patient suffering from diabetes, cardiovascular ailments, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

The price of the medication came up to $44.25 in the Western division.

The percentage difference between the highest and the lowest prices for the full complement of prescribed medications in the West was 229 percent.
 
The lowest price for the same prescription medication was $13.45.

According to the council survey, the same trend in price difference has been noticed for the generic medication.

Meanwhile the Consumer Council said it wants the Fiji Pharmaceutical Society to strengthen its code of ethics and monitor practices in the industry.

Some of the problems noted in the council survey are pharmacies not disclosing prices of individual medicines, violation of labelling requirements for medicines set by the Ministry of Health, problems with receipts and not informing consumers on choice over the generic and originator brand medications.

There is also an allegation in the survey report of dispensing medications in wrong dosage and being involved in fraudulent sale.

Kumar said due to a lack of knowledge on medication, majority of the consumers in Fiji place complete trust in the pharmacies when they go to purchase their medicine.

She said there needs to be an effective enforcement of the laws to ensure that people are protected against unfair practices.
 

Story by: Vijay Narayan