Oman hosts GCC Drug Pricing Committee meet

SALALAH: The 33rd meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Drug Pricing Committee began in Rotana Hotel in Salalah on Monday. The three-day meeting, hosted by the Sultanate, was attended by Dr Khalid bin Mohammed al Mashaikhi, Director-General of Health Services in the Governorate of Dhofar, who stressed in his inaugural speech the significance of the meeting and the issues it will discuss.

The opening programme further reviewed the important role that the committee played in the past including the achievements made in the field of drug price reduction and provision. Dr Mohammed bin Hamdan al Rubai’e, Director-General of Pharmaceutical Affairs and Drug Control at the Ministry of Health, highlighted the unification of medicine prices in GCC countries. He underlined challenges regarding the increasing prices of drugs. The meeting’s agenda includes spectrum topics that contain a discussion of of the ministerial and executive decisions and recommendations concerning the organisation of the committee’s work and remarks made by firms, as well as the actions completed regarding the pricing of pending pharmaceutical products.

The meeting will review the GCC Pricing Guidelines study and discuss the unification of the pharmaceutical products prices provided by the Sultanate and Saudi Arabia.