The Federation of Drug Importers and Pharmacies Owners called for postponing the implementation of the decision of the Minister of Health, Dr. Ahmed Al-Awadi, which aims to reduce the permissible profit margin when selling medicines, pharmaceuticals, and nutritional supplements in the private health sector to 5 percent.
Informed sources revealed to Al-Qabas that the federation “sent a letter to His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmed Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, to meet a delegation from the federation to highlight the repercussions of the decision and find appropriate solutions for all parties.”
The sources pointed out that the new decision stipulates that the profit margin for the local agent and the pharmacy includes administrative and other expenses, and everything spent on medicines from the time they are received and cleared until they are delivered to the consumer.
The sources indicated that the federation expressed the inability of many companies and pharmacies to fulfill their operational obligations, affected by the wave of high prices and high inflation rates globally, citing the increase in operating expenses locally and globally, in addition to “the need to support national workers and companies, so that they can continue to play their role”.
The sources stated that the representatives of the federation and the ministries of “Health”, “Commerce”, “Finance” and Kuwait University (Faculty of Pharmacy) had held a meeting in mid-December last within the framework of the joint committee, to review the high prices of medicines and nutritional supplements and agreed to compare the prices of about 500 pharmaceutical items to the prices in neighboring countries, and shortly after that meeting the decision was issued to reduce the profit margin.
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