Ministry of Health reduces prices of 422 innovative drugs

The Ministry of Health has launched its fifth initiative to reduce prices of 422 innovative and produced drugs in cooperation with the largest production drug companies.

This was agreed during the meeting held between the Ministry of Health and the directors of international drugs companies, representatives of local factors and authorised agents in the UAE.

The meeting was attended by 100 directors, authorised officials and experts in the drug sector.

Dr Amin Hussein Al Amiri, Assistant Under-Secretary for Public Health and Licensing and Vice Chairman of the drug pricing and registration higher committee, stated that the ministry held a meeting with local, regional and international drug companies to launch the fifth initiative, which selected the UAE as a regional hub in the Mediterranean and North Africa and establish offices to accommodate between 100-500 employees.

Dr Al Amiri lauded the positive response of international drugs companies to the initiatives of the Ministry of Health to reduce the drugs prices. The ministry previously applied four initiatives to reduce drugs as follows:

1 Initiative one for 565 innovative drugs- (reduction between 5-55 per cent) dated 26/6/2011.

2 Initiative two for 115 resembled drugs- (reduction between 5-35 per cent) dated 13/11/2011.

3 Initiative three for 6632 innovative and resembled drugs (reduction between 1-40%) based on the cabinet’s decision dated 6/3/2013.

4 Initiative four for 192 innovative drugs (reduction between 1-60 per cent) dated 13/11/2013.

Fruitful cooperation basically benefits all patients in general and chronic disease patients in particular. Dr Al Amiri added that such fruitful cooperation benefit all patients generally and those patients suffering from chronic, viral and neuro diseases, cardio, cancers specifically.