Medicines are getting incredulously highly priced. The rising costs of materials, transportation and foreign exchange rates are to be blamed. What can we do about it?
In Malaysia, our main problem is the foreign exchange rate. Even though the peg was removed, our currency did not appreciate that much. In order to bring down the impact of this problem, we should offer tenders and build the necessary infrastructure to manufacture imported drugs in our country. We have to make the offers look lucrative for the pharmaceutical giants so that they would willingly choose Malaysia as a manufacturing base. As a result, we could get better prices for the drugs as goodwill, the costs of transportation will plummet and the costs of imports could be almost completely waived. It would be even better if we could devise a deal so that we could import the technology and expertise of these companies to locally manufacture the drugs on our own. We have managed to get Intel to build chip manufacturing plants here, so we should have the confidence to approach pharmaceutical companies.
Synthetic drugs are now a luxury. It is becoming an ugly scenario where health is actually bought by money. Since Malaysia has an abundance of herbs and marine resources, we have to speed up our research on these organisms for their medicinal value. We have to start manufacturing traditional based medicine in bulk to supplement the shortage of high end drugs. I’m not saying that we should shun modern medicine but there is undoubtedly an enormous power of traditional medicine that has yet to be unleashed. If we could make this work, not only can we save on drugs, we might actually be able to earn more money from selling our own patented medicines.
Good health should be everybody’s right. Drug companies as well as their distributors and retailers should also be more considerate and honest with pricing. If doctors have to follow a code of ethics to provide health care to all, pharmaceuticals too have a responsibility as they work side by side with medical personnel.
3 comments:
o.O is it really that surprising to find that people spend money on their health? Also, d reason d Ringgit didn't really appreciated much was due 2 d fact that Bank Negara & the gov in particular made very damn sure that d RM didn't appreciate hugely lol. Besides, perhaps there are other reasons as to y the prices of meds are increasing?
Companies spend too much on R&D. It's supply and demand after all. No one will pay for 3rd World Diseases, only 1st World illnesses. Sad
Yea, it's real sad. Dunno why we refuse to emulate countries like Singapore in terms of economic management. They have progressed and we have regressed. And some people bising over a bridge. Just great.
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