For a few days, the National Union of Pharmacy Owners announced the closure of almost 450 pharmacies nationwide for this Monday, due to the lack of negotiation on Executive Decree No. 17, which reduces the price of 170 medicines by 30%.
As explained by the owners of small pharmacies, there are more than 4,000 workers who will be affected, so they have asked the Executive to extend the decree for one month to get out of the inventory they still have and so that all the measures remain in writing.
Given these comments, the Minister Counselor for Health, Eyra Ruiz, clarified that it is not true that pharmacies are responsible for assuming the 30% discount on medicines, a concern of the owners of small pharmacies.
He explained that this percentage is divided between the manufacturer, the distributor and the pharmacy, which represents 10% for each one; however, the owners of small pharmacies said that the decree does not say anything about it, that at the table the distributors did not commit to anything, and there is no document that supports that supposed agreement.
Meanwhile, the National Director of Pharmacies and Drugs of the Ministry of Health (Minsa), Elvia Lau, explained that this decree talks about commercial agreements that companies have and it was done extensively.
“The run comes from above with 30-30-30, that is, if the medicine costs $10.00, the manufacturer takes away its 30, it remains at 7, 7 is passed to the distributor, and the distributor is going to pass it with a 30 to the pharmacy and then the pharmacy to the patient, this is throughout the chain. The government was never going to allow them (pharmaceuticals) to face this alone, this is an issue that is between them,” Lau said.
He added that the Ministry of Commerce and Industries (MICI) will be responsible for typifying the part where it will be indicated that it is from the laboratory to the distributor and distributor to the pharmacy so that this percentage of 30% is granted.
