6,632 medicines to cost less from Thursday in UAE pharmacies

From Thursday, UAE residents will see price reductions between 1 to 44 per cent on 6,632 medicines on the shelves of the country’s pharmacies.

This was announced by the Ministry of Health on Wednesday.

In February this year, a new pricing system for medicines was approved in a Cabinet meeting held by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

After that a working group headed by Ameen Hussain Al Amiri, Assistant Undersecretary for Medical Practices and Licensing, was formed to implement the new pricing system.

“We studied the prices of medicines among various Arab and Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan and Lebanon. We came to the conclusion that these pharmaceutical products were less expensive in other countries than in the UAE,” said Al Amiri.

“With the new pricing system, 60 per cent of the medicines in the UAE will become the lowest in price among the GCC countries,” he said.

Under the new pricing system, all imported pharmaceutical products will be priced in US dollars.

The profit margin for pharmacies has been increased, with a larger margin for cheaper medicines.

“The current system is based on using all foreign currencies, which means that fluctuations in the value of these currencies results in high prices of medicines for some time and price differences between the GCC countries,” explained Al Amiri.

“We got complaints of low profit margins from pharmacies after the ministerial decree in October 2008, when the value of the euro surged globally,” he added.

The working group thinks that, apart from the standardisation of the currency which will stabilise medicine prices, the higher profit margin for cheaper products will encourage the import of lower-priced medicines.

“The profit margin for pharmacies has been classified according to three price ranges, which gives way to an increase in profit for the pharmacy’s least expensive medicine, which in turn will encourage import of lower-priced medicines,” said Al Amiri.

Medicines priced below Dh250 will have a profit margin of 28 per cent, those priced between Dh250-500 a margin of 24 per cent and drugs above Dh500 a margin of 20 per cent. The profit margin for agents has been set at 15 per cent of the Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF) price.

Price reductions are mostly on medicines for chronic diseases such diabetes and heart ailments. Alternative drugs for chronic diseases will be introduced, the ministry said.

“We aim to ease the burden on patients and make drugs accessible to everyone,” said Minister of Health Abdul Rahman Mohammad Owais.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.