AMMAN — Although the price of locally manufactured
medication is about 20 percent less than its imported equivalent, some
Jordanians shy away from it because they distrust its efficacy.
اضافة اعلان
Wael Abu Dayyih,
owner of a small pharmacy in the eastern city of Rusaifa, said: “Many customers
ask for specific (imported) products that are out of stock, but when we offer a
local substitute, they refuse to buy it.”
“Even though these local medicines are cheaper than
the imported product”, he told
Jordan News, noting that he believed the
reason was the “lack of trust in the effectiveness of local medicines”.
Mohammad
Ababneh, head of the
Jordan Pharmacists Association (JPA), said that local
medicines “are priced at 80 percent of the average price of the imported
alternatives”.
On the other hand, imported medication is priced
according to several considerations. “This includes pricing against a benchmark
of prices from 10 regional countries, direct benchmarking against a singular
model, ... Saudi Arabia, or benchmarking against the price in foreign currency
in the country of origin”, he explained.
“Compared to other countries, Jordan is a small
market, which is why the benchmarking is done against countries with larger
populations, such as Saudi Arabia”, Ababneh noted.
For producers and importers, the size of the market
plays a vital role in the profitability, and the sustainability of a production
and marketing operation.
For example, Turkey and Egypt, where pharmaceutical
companies have established mass production operations given the high population
densities, medicine in significantly cheaper than in Jordan.
Mohammad Qasqas, a pharmacist in Amman, told
Jordan
News that “the prices of pharmaceutical products abroad are currently
declining”.
“This will drive the prices of local pharmaceutical
products down, as local medicine must be cheaper than the imported drug,” he
said, adding that “imported medication is affected by the currency fluctuations
in the producing countries, like any other product”.
According to Qasqas, the prices of many local
pharmaceutical products are dropping below those of the rival foreign products.
But, he added, there are cases in which the price of
an imported medicine drops below the cost of a locally produced medicine.
Despite several attempts,
Jordan News was unable to reach the Jordan
Food and Drug Administration
for comment.
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