DESPITE concerns predicting an increase in medicine prices by up to 10%, Deputy Health Minister Datuk Lukanisman Awang Sauni has assured that this will not be the case.
He said the government has taken steps to ensure medicine prices stay stable.
Among the steps taken was acquiring three-year-long acquisition contracts with medicine suppliers, said Lukanisman.
“This ensures that medicine prices will remain stable and not increase for three years while also saving the government from repetitive costs such as advertising new tenders.
“This has made contract monitoring more effective while also ensuring there is no sudden cut in medicine supply during the three years,” he said during ministry question time in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
Lukanisman said the ministry has also continued to engage in pool procurement of medicine with teaching hospitals under the Higher Education Ministry and military hospitals under the Defence Ministry.
“This joint acquisition saved the government an estimated RM179.6mil in the procurement period from year 2020 to 2022,” he said.
Lukanisman was responding to a question by Datuk Dr Nik Muhammad Zawawi Salleh (PN-Pasir Puteh), who brought up concerns that medicine prices could increase by up to 10% in the near future.
In a follow-up question, Muhammad Zawawi asked about the possibility of having localised production of general medication as an alternative supply.
To this, Lukanisman said the ministry had plans to do so, but such a move would require much more research and cost assessment.
“We are not at the right stage yet to create such an ecosystem in the country,” he said.
