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The kingdom’s pharmacies are on a mission to have retail prices of thousands of medicines slashed by Sunday.
The Pharmacies Owners and Importers Society were ordered by the National Health Regulatory Authority (NHA) to reduce their profit margins on around 5,000 products to create significant savings for shoppers.
Under new rules, chemists can make maximum profit of 35 per cent on products sold for less than BD20 and 25 per cent profit on those sold for more than BD20.
This compares to a previous profit ceiling of 45 per cent.
A general assembly held at the Gulf Hotel at the weekend, attended by more than 50 pharmacy owners, was called to discuss the matter further.
Members had even sent an urgent letter to the authority requesting more time to modify the prices and sell existing stock, or else they would be forced to close so as not to violate the law.
Society president and Remza Investment Company’s chief operating officer, Dr Fadhel Al Arrayed said: “The Pharmacies Owners have always emphasised that they are in favour of anything that helps the consumer and we in no way are objecting to the restructure of prices.
“Our problem is with the management of the NHRA because it did not appear to be implementing this decision in a professional manner.
“It released the new prices on January 16 and asked for immediate implementation which is logistically impossible. Some pharmacies didn’t even receive the new retail price by January 18.
“By law, we would have to change the price sticker on hundreds and thousands of medicines.”
He said that a meeting was held with the NHRA and demands were made for immediate implementation.
“That is when we held a meeting requesting if we could at least get one week to change the pricing, otherwise we would have to close pharmacies as to not expose ourselves to punitive measures,” explained Dr Fadhel.
“We also requested if they could give us three months to clear the existing stock which we had bought at higher prices. Some medicine that we bought will now have to be sold below cost, at cost or at minimum cost, which is not fair.
“There will be a huge loss for pharmacies and some of the new pharmacies, I believe, might not be able to withstand the shock.”
According to Dr Fadhel, the NHRA made a small concession of not enforcing the order until Sunday which will allow the pharmacies some time, although the new limit was tight.
NHRA chief executive Dr Baha Eldin Fateha has warned pharmacies of prosecution if they ignore the new pricing structure.
Dr Fateha said: “In the GCC, Bahrain has the highest price for medicines and we find that many people travel to Saudi Arabia to buy medicine. We have been facing resistance from pharmaceutical companies about the change, but they have been instructed to do it.
“If they don’t do it then, according to the law, we will file a report and take it straight to the Public Prosecutor.”
The NHRA also wants to bring medicine prices down further for consumers by negotiating cheaper prices with drug suppliers.
Dr Fateha added: “We are working on the next phase now, which is to reduce the cost of medicines itself through the suppliers and that will be far more noticeable to the consumer.”
Pharmacies will be given three months to sell existing stock before the second phase kicks in.
Minister of State for Information Affairs and official government spokesman Sameera Rajab had confirmed that a petition from pharmacies had been presented to the Cabinet. She said the Health Ministry would meet with pharmacy owners to discuss the matter further.
