MPs back medicine price cap proposal

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

Parliament yesterday approved a proposal to fix medicine prices, backing the Services Committee’s recommendation even as the regulator said pricing is already set in law and pharmacy owners pointed to falls of up to 70 per cent since 2014.

The measure seeks firmer control so patients pay broadly in line with prices in other Gulf states, with import costs taken into account.

Bader Al Tamimi said many citizens and residents struggle with rising and uneven prices, especially those with chronic conditions.

“We have gone 25 years without revising medicine prices. Is it reasonable that prices stay unchanged for a quarter of a century,” he said. “Prices for the same item can differ between pharmacies, even paracetamol. Many patients cannot find their medicines at health centres, so they buy from private pharmacies, and many cross to Saudi Arabia because prices there are lower.” MP Al Tamimi also set out margin comparisons.

“In Bahrain, medicine profit margins run between 25 and 30 per cent. In the UAE they are 20 to 28 per cent, in Oman 19 to 24 per cent, and in Jordan 19 per cent. Is it reasonable for a small market like Bahrain to have higher margins than these countries,” he said.

The National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA) says the plan is difficult to apply because Bahrain already prices medicines under Article 86 of Decree-Law No. 18 of 1997 and Decision No. 32 of 2020.

Those rules link profit to import cost, set ceilings by price band and rely on unified GCC lists or official import invoices. The authority says it sets prices through a published guide, inspects public and private pharmacies and requires the same shelf price across outlets, taking into account whether a product is originator or generic and when it was registered.

The proposal was put forward by MPs Al Tamimi, Hamad Al Doy, Najeeb Al Kuwari and Mohammed Al Rafai.

The government will now consider the proposal.