VietNamNet Bridge – Some pharmaceutical companies have been accused of purposefully producing medicine with a higher drug content than necessary in order to sell their products at a higher price.

Pharmacists check the quality of drugs at the Ha Noi's Duc Giang General Hospital. Some pharmaceutical companies have been accused of purposefully producing medicine with a higher drug content than normal levels in order to sell their products at a higher price.

The claims have arisen following inspections of medicine supplied to public hospitals.

At least 20 types of medicine, mainly in the anti-biotic and pain-relieving groups, were detected to have an unusually high drug content during agency checks in hospitals in nine provinces and cities, including Binh Thuan and HCM City.

At Binh Duong General Hospital, some medical pills that would usually be expected to have a drug content of 500mg or 1 gram were found to contain 700mg and 1.25 grams respectively.

Many of these pills were found to be selling at five times the price of medicine containing similar active elements.

For example, Cefalexin antibiotics containing a drug content of 350mg produced by Merap Viet Nam Group are being sold in hospitals for VND1,400 (US6.7 cent) per pill.

However, similar antibiotics produced by rivals containing 250mg are sold at only VND470 (2.3 cent).

The agency believes that pharmaceutical companies have increased drug content – despite there being no medical benefit to do so – in order to differentiate their products from rivals and therefore sell them at a higher price. This in turn gives them an advantage when bidding to supply medicine to hospitals.

In a recent meeting with local media, a representative from the Merap Viet Nam Group – which has won the bidding to sell drugs to Binh Duong Province - said that their medicine was produced with higher drug content in order to meet the demands of treatment.

The group explained that surveys showed doctors tended to prescribe increased doses of antibiotics for treatment and therefore pills with higher drug content would provide them with more options when making prescriptions.

The group also added that their prices have been registered with the health ministry's Drug Administration of Viet Nam (DAV) since 2011.

DAV deputy director Nguyen Viet Hung said that Merap Viet Nam Group had been asked to report on their bidding process in Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Binh Thuan provinces.

DAV will review all drugs with abnormally high content and report the situation to the Ministry of Health's Medicine Approval Council.

DAV has already asked the group to explain its pricing and make reasonable adjustments. Until this is done, the manufacturer is not allowed to supply the contested drugs to the market.

The director of the Viet Nam Insurance Agency's Pharmaceutical and Medical Facilities Department, Vu Xuan Hien, told Viet Nam News that the situation was impacting the agency's health insurance funds and leaving patients with higher medical bills.

"Medicine price management and hospital bidding processes should be reviewed again from top to bottom by producers and medicine," he said.

However, Hien admitted that all the suspected medicine contained normal active elements and was legally licensed and approved for circulation by the Ministry of Health.

He added that the agency would collaborate with the ministry to adjust drugs prices where necessary after collecting information from provinces and cities in the near future.

Source: VNS