Through a statement, the drug producing sector stated that “It is unnecessary to alter the rules of free competition through freezing mechanisms of prices“. In this case, those who signed the document were the Industrial Chamber of Argentine Pharmaceutical Laboratories (Cilfa), the Business Chamber of Pharmaceutical Laboratories (Cooperala) and the Argentine Chamber of Medicinal Specialties (Caeme).
“For many years the pharmaceutical industry present in Argentina has been making great efforts to maintain the accessibility of medicines to the main funders, social works and prepaid”, they said regarding the work they carry out in the field of costos. In that sense, The Secretary of Internal Commerce had ensured that a State intervention in those prices would benefit thousands of citizens.
When it comes to explaining why it is not necessary to freeze prices, indicated that it has to do with “the presence of more than 350 laboratories and 229 industrial plants in the country, with 7,300 brands and more than 16,000 presentations of drugs with different active ingredients that compete in an environment where more than 14,000 pharmacies ”. Equally, ratified their commitment to maintain “the values average in line with the evolutionary dynamics of the CPI “.
What had Roberto Feletti said
A few days after the freezing of more than a thousand products of the basic basket was implemented, the Secretary of Internal Commerce anticipated that there is the possibility of including other items in the controls and that one of those would be that of medicines. From this, he announced that he will meet with the head of PAMI, Luana Volnovich.
Regarding the measure in general, which has the commitment of mayors and governors throughout the country to supervise, Roberto Feletti said that there is close to 78% compliance and defined the first weeks as “good and acceptable” thanks to the low voltage of the companies.
