Ministry of Health (MoH) has in recent weeks received a string of complaints against companies hiking the price of their medicines without prior approval from the ministry. Revealing this, the ministry’s Assistant Undersecretary for Medicine Control Affairs Dr. Abdullah Al-Bader said that 11 cases of medicine price violations are being investigated by the ministry.
He clarified that five of these cases were related to products that were not under the purview of the ministry, while one case was confirmed as a price manipulation and referred to the Public Prosecution for appropriate action. The remaining five cases were still being legally sorted before referring them to the ministry’s legal affairs department for initiating further legal processes, said Al-Bader.
According to Article 15 of the Pharmacy Law No.28/1996, the punishment for manipulation of medicine prices is jail-term not exceeding six months and/or a fine not exceeding KD 2,000.
