The Minister of Health, Luis Francisco Sucre, made a clarification regarding the price of medicines with the entry into force of Decree 17, which establishes a 30% reduction in the price of 170 drugs.
Sucre assured that the population “has been asking for a price adjustment or reduction in the cost of medicines for many years and they have not been able to respond due to the complexity of the issue,” however, he said that this decree does not seeks a discount on medicines but rather a decrease in price from the supply chain and that the three links sit down to negotiate: Laboratories (producers), distributors (those who sell to pharmacies) and retailers, which are pharmacies.
He pointed out that since August 10, it was announced that Decree 17, which regulates the price of 30% discounts on medicines, came into force on the 15th of the current month.
He also said that the last proposal was presented at the dialogue table and that it came from the distributors themselves “is that the Laboratories will start in a chain assuming a price reduction of 30%, which would cause a cascade effect, in the price decrease, because the discount on medicine is only for retirees and disabled people”.
He also indicated that, regarding the inventory, the National Government is supporting small pharmacies so that this inventory is recognized.
The minister said in this program that there is a decree that establishes the opening of the margin of another country, which according to its license could not sell in Panama, so they have approached other countries such as: Ecuador, South Korea, Chile, Argentina , Mexico, Colombia, Cuba and Brazil. The
