KATHMANDU, March 9: The Department of Drug Administration is preparing to publish the price of medicines available in the market on its website. The DDA has entrusted its' drug inspectors with collecting the price details of all the medicines available in the market, officials informed.
"We have tasked our drug inspectors with collecting the price details of medicines from the market," said Bal Krishna Khakurel, director general (DG) at DDA. He said patients will be able to choose medicines once their prices are published on its website. He informed the DDA will publish on its website the cost of all medicines available in the market.
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DG Khakurel hopes that pharmaceuticals companies will also be compelled to reduce the price of medicines once the DDA publishes price details on its web site. He said the price of same medicines produced by different companies varies in the local market. "There is no standard mechanism for setting prices of medicines," said Khakurel, "Once the prices are published, patients can choose relatively lower-priced medicines."
He claimed that the pharmaceutical companies have been offering huge bonuses to dispensaries and medicine dealers. Dispensaries also prefer medicines in which they have a bigger profit margin.
"Patients do not have the knowledge of the quality and price of medicines. As a result, the dispensaries have been fleecing them," added Khakurel. He said patients can get the actual price of medicines from the DDA's website soon.
