The Ministry of Internal Trade will continue working in the work tables with the food and medicine sectors in the coming days, to consolidate the implementation of the pricing programs.
In the last meeting held last Monday by the Secretary of Internal Trade, Roberto Feletti, with the food sector, a meeting was agreed in 15 days with wholesalers, distributors and local businesses, which is part of the work table set up to coordinate the program.
After the last meeting, Feletti said that the program “in the smaller stores has an adaptation time”, so “we gave them 15 days to discuss, we will evaluate if in the smaller chains a different price is needed within a certain degree”.
“I can understand that a retailer has a very narrow margin and it is difficult to comply, which I will not tolerate that a wholesaler or distributor invoices above the value of the resolution, there I will be inflexible because there is a misappropriation margin, “he remarked.
“I will not tolerate that a wholesaler or distributor invoices above the value of the resolution”Roberto Feletti
The maintenance of the price of 1,432 mass consumption products has a high degree of compliance in supply and prices in large supermarket chains, and work is being done to expand compliance in smaller chains and local shops.
Last Thursday, Internal Commerce and the General Syndicate of the Nation (Sigen) agreed to work together to monitor internet marketing carried out by supermarkets of the 1,432 products that went back to October 1, and will remain until January 7.
Sigen will work with a sampling of warehouse products, cleaning and hygiene and personal care, of which it will not only reveal their price online, but also the existence of an adequate stock and its correct supply.
Feletti stressed that the collaboration of the Sigen “It is very important, since it is added to other evaluation and monitoring devices in force, which allow us to have a broad panorama of the fulfillment of the program throughout the country.”
In addition, In the last week, the agreement reached by the national government and the pharmaceutical industry to bring back the prices of medicines to November 1 and keep them until January 7 was launched..
The agreement, which sets reference prices for all drugs sold in the country, is in addition to the freeze arranged days ago for 1,432 mass consumption products, with the aim of guaranteeing the population access to “essential consumption” and for “To achieve a good expansion of the economy in the exit of the pandemic”, remarked Feletti.
In the last week, the agreement reached by the national government and the pharmaceutical industry to roll back the prices of medicines to November 1 and keep them until January 7
The agreement on medicines received the support of different sectors, including the candidate for national deputy for the Frente de Todos (FdT) and former Minister of Health of Buenos Aires, Daniel Gollan, who said that “it is a first measure that had to be taken, since As with food, we observed in studies that drugs had been rising well above inflation. “
Meanwhile, the Secretary General of the College of Pharmacists of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Rubén Sajem, also spoke in favor of the agreement and indicated that the laboratories “have room” to carry it out because “they did very well in the pandemic.”
According to the Center for Argentine Political Economy (CEPA), drug prices increased 65.9% between September 2020 and October of this year, while only in the second quarter of 2021 the total turnover of the pharmaceutical industry in the Argentina registered $ 135,420.5 million, which represents an increase of 75.8% year-on-year.
“The price increases above inflation of the most used brands of drugs is something that we have been marking,” Sajem said in radio statements.
For her part, the spokesperson for the Presidency of the Nation, Gabriela Cerruti, stated that “we are going to continue working and analyzing how we can ensure that food and medication, which are the two fundamental inputs of the basic food basket of families , may be available to everyone “.
