COMPLAINTS regarding highly obvious differences in prices of medicine have been received by the Consumer Council of Fiji, says council’s chief executive officer Premila Kumar.
Ms Kumar said many consumers had issues regarding prices and in many cases they could not afford medication.
“The other issue is where the generic medicine is sold as original so that is basically a trade fraud, where they are trading or selling generics as originator brand and unfortunately consumers don’t know,” she claimed.
“They cannot differentiate the two so that becomes an issue and later when they find out about pricing from one store to another, consumers come to us and ask why the medicine is sold by a pharmacy at a particular price whereas another would sell at a different price.”
Ms Kumar also said generic medicine tended to be an unfavourable choice among the public.
“There is nothing wrong with generic medication. Originator brands are more expensive because the patent is still with the creator of the medication.
“When the patent is taken off, it simply means many other companies can make the same medication so that doesn’t mean the active ingredient is any way lesser.
“I suppose generic medication is seen not in a positive way in Fiji and consumers always say we want good medicine and good here defines originator brands.”
Ms Kumar said this in an interview with the media during the four-day Quality Assurance and Rational Use of Essential Medicines in the Pacific Island Countries meeting in Nadi which she was attending.
She said the meeting was especially important as it allowed her organisation to bring issues faced by consumers directly to policy makers.
According to Ms Kumar, there was a need to find solutions to problems faced by the pharmaceutical sector across the region.
When contacted, Fiji Pharmaceutical Society president Reshnika Sen said generic and original branded medication had different pricing.
“That is why when doctors prescribe the medicine, they write only the drug name,” she said.
“So when consumers go to pharmacies to buy medicine, for example, the price of Indian branded medicine will be different from the Australian one.”
Ms Sen said the Commerce Commission regulated the prices of 72 types of medicine.
“For the remaining medicine, prices will vary because it is a very competitive market and competition drives the prices.”
