Inspections Reveal Significant Price Increases for Medicines

Over the first nine months of 2024, more than a thousand people were held administratively liable. Inspections revealed that prices for medicines could be inflated by up to 2000%, Orda.kz reports, citing Energyprom. kz.

Since the beginning of the year, the Committee on Legal Statistics and Special Records of the Prosecutor General's's Office has registered 1,200 violations of pharmaceutical activity rules – twice as many as last year. 

Illegal medical or pharmaceutical activity cases increased by 42%, with 996 people held accountable.

Analysts cite the results of an audit by the Ministry of Health; the agency's disjointed work has resulted in colossal losses. 

The coverage of Kazakhstani manufacturers of medicines and medical devices by state support measures remains low: less than 20%. In addition, poor procurement planning in the Single Distributor system led to medical organizations declining to purchase drugs worth 2.8 billion tenge. As a result, there was 'overstocking' with subsequent write-off due to expiration of some drugs worth 279.5 million tenge, the material says.

The state regulates prices on" a "percentage per percent" basis, so the cost of a medication, within acceptable limits, easily reaches 172% of the manufacturer’s price.

Medicines that are not registered can generally be sold with a markup of 2000% of the factory price.

The state audit found that shortcomings in the pricing mechanism led to SK-Pharmacia LLC purchasing certain medicines and medical products at prices 40%-365% higher than market prices, which amounted to more than eight billion tenge, analysts cite figures.

The annual increase in the price of medicines outpaces inflation in the country. 

According to the results of September of this year, prices for pharmaceuticals have increased by 12% - this is significantly higher than the inflation rate in the country. At the same time, according to the available data of the Bureau of National Statistics of the ASPiR RK, for certain drugs the annual price increase was significantly higher than the market average: for example, acetylsalicylic acid has increased in price by 48.9% over the year, activated carbon - by 31%, the probiotic "Hilak Forte" - by 25%, the antibiotic "Flemoxin Solutab" - by 21.5%,"analysts report.

The total production of medicines in the country in 2024 increased by 22.5%, but domestic producers covered only 18% of demand.

Original Author: Alexandra Mokhireva