Centralised Buying Agency
Under an integrated national pharmaceutical policy, the central buying agency channells all imports and production of pharmaceuticals, calling for worldwide bulk tenders which are limited to the approved drugs listed in the national formulary. The public and private health sectors must obtain all their requirements from the central buying agency.
In Chile in 1971, the government of Dr Salvador Allende organised centralised bulk procurement and the first international tender for raw materials was called. However, the pharmaceutical industry struck back and, in the three months following the call for tender, widely used drugs disappeared from the market, including analgesics and antibiotics. The manufacturers had cut their production. They agreed to replenish the market within one week only if the international tenders were called off. In 1972, the government was forced to succumb and called off the tenders.
In Sri Lanka the Sri Lanka State Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC) was established in 1972 with Bibile as Chairman. Hence the stranglehold of the Multi National Corporations on the drug trade was successfully broken and they were made to compete with each other and with generic drug producers, enabling the country to obtain drugs much cheaper. Branded drugs were replaced by generic drugs in the prescription and sale of medicines.
In 1972 it imported 52 drugs at a third of their previous prices. In 1973, the SPC itself bought the raw material necessary for 14 private processing laboratories established in the island. Some drug prices dropped by half or two-thirds. The SPC bought from an Indian company the raw material necessary for a widely used tranquilliser at a much lower price than that charged by a Swiss multinational.
Read more about this topic: National Pharmaceuticals Policy
Famous quotes containing the words buying and/or agency:
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—Katharine S. White (1892–1977)
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