The Consumer Council of Fiji is disappointed with comments made by the Fiji Pharmaceutical Society (FPS) in the media comparing prices of medicines in Fiji to that of those sold in the region, instead of assuring consumers that their members will not cheat consumers through unfair trade practices.
“ FPS should be working on improving the current trade practices of pharmacists as pointed out by our survey last year which is one of the reasons for high cost of medicines in country,” said CCF chief executive Mrs Premila Kumar.
“ The Council’s survey also revealed that majority of the pharmacies in the country is profiteering through extremely high price margins.”
Mrs Kumar said the key findings in price analysis for individual medications showed that 30 pharmacies out of the 47 surveyed or 57% charged higher prices for medications with same brand, same batch number, expiry date and same quantity; in some cases overcharge was up to as high as 460%.
“Our findings show that despite prescription medicines being under price control within maximum percentage mark-up of 35%, the trade margins are very high,” she said.
“ Another issue of concern with pharmaceutical trade practices was the fraudulent practices of some pharmacies. For example our survey found three pharmacies selling generic medication labelled as originator brand and also charging the price of the originator brands which is much more expensive.
“ For example Thakorlal Pharmacy in Nadi and Wyse Pharmacy in Nakasi dispensed generic Frusemide tablets APO but labelled it as Laxis which is the originator brand and charged the price of Laxis ($4.65) instead of $1.35.”
Mrs Kumar said one of the key findings of the Council’s pharmaceutical survey was that pharmacies in Fiji were not informing consumers on the choice they had in buying cheaper generic medications or more expensive originator brands.
“As a result of this consumers in Fiji are paying high prices for their medicines because of the lack of choice given over generics and originator brand medicines. Most consumers are paying higher price for medications which could cost them much less if given the choice,” she said.
“ Out of 47 pharmacies surveyed, 43 chose to dispense originator brands for one or more prescribed drugs without informing the consumer that he/she could opt for a cheaper generic brand of the same medicine either in their pharmacy or any other chemist.
“Hence, the total price of the medicine which should have cost the consumer $15.00 if given all generic medications, actually cost him up to $44.00, which was three times more or three months supply of his medication. Of the 43 pharmacies that chose to dispense originator brands instead of generics, 12 charged more than $30.00 while 3 charged more than $40.00 for the prescribed medicines.
“ Dispensing originator brands without informing the consumers of the choice between originator brands and generics seemed to be a common practice amongst pharmacies in Fiji.
“There was also a major problem with receipts from the pharmacies where none of the 47 pharmacies surveyed gave receipts with individual medicine names however, 19 pharmacies did give out itemized receipts with codes. Some pharmacies also did not have basic information required by Fiji laws such as company name, tax number, and company address etc on their receipts.
“The Council believes that FPS should improve trade practices of pharmacists and not evade the problems in the pharmaceutical sector by comparing medicines in the region. It is shocking that FPS is trying to cover up the issues that are fraudulent in nature by comparing prices in the region. As it is through fraudulent means some of the pharmacist are charging exorbitant price.”
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