Subsidies for medicines, consultation remain at RM1 — Health Minister

KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry has assured that drug subsidies and consultations for outpatients at government clinics and hospitals will remain at RM1 even with the implementation of the B40 Health Care Scheme, the Dewan Rakyat was told yesterday.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkef ly Ahmad said RM5 will also continue for patients who sought consultation from specialist doctors.

In answering addit iona l quest ions from Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan ( BN-Pontian), Dr Dzulkefly said there were no such thing as second class medicines for generic drugs registered through its ‘ bioequivalence’ study and ‘availability’ because they contained the quality and effectiveness of innovator drugs.

Meanwhile, he said, the Health Ministry was in the early stages of preparing the proposed drug control mechanism for drug prices with existing legislation under the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, which was the Price Control and AntiProfiteering Act 2011.

Responding to an oral question from Charles Anthony Santiago ( PH-Klang),” he said the ministry also took into consideration the interests of all parties involved in determining the drug price control mechanisms that were to be implemented later.

Commenting further, Dzulkefly said the ministry had always encouraged ef forts to utilise af fordable generic drugs by prioritising local generic drugs in obtaining drugs for the public sector.

The procurement of medicines or drugs by the Health Ministry were also made through open t ender and guided by the government’s procurement laws and regulations.

Dzulkef ly said in 2017, the percentage of generic drug purchases compared to innovator drugs was 53.6 per cent with a turnover of RM1,311.8 million. Of these 50.3 per cent were homemade generic drugs.