Rising costs of medical drugs impacts on poor

The cost of health care in Zimbabwe finally went beyond the reach of most people this month when medical drug suppliers and pharmacies hiked prices by more than 1,000 percent, citing an increase by the same margin in import costs. Health care specialists told IRIN the new prices were a fresh blow to access to health care by ordinary citizens, coming just two weeks after the country's private medical practioners increased their fees by 80 percent. Zimbabwe's public health sector has been hard-hit by a wide range of problems, including drug and medicine shortages, the exodus of skilled medical personnel and the high cost of medical care. A recent survey of pharmacies in Bulawayo, the country's second city, revealed that paracetemol went up from Zim $110 (US 13 cents) in August, to Zim $1,100 (US $1.30) this month, while a 500 ml bottle of children's cough mixture now costs Zim $6,000 (US $7.50), up from Zim $450 (US 5 cents) last month. "At this rate, no ordinary Zimbabwean worker can afford to buy drugs at these prices. But as drug retailers we have no choice but to pass the increases on to patients, because they are imposed on us by drug wholesalers. Our increases are in fact the ripple effects of the high drug importation costs, which suppliers have always complained about," said a manager at one of the city's major pharmacy chains. The secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Medical Wholesalers Association (ZMWA), Isaiah Shoniwa, was recently quoted by local media as saying price increases in the drug sector were imminent because importation costs had gone up by 1,000 percent. "We find the cost of importing drugs highly prohibitive. In fact, most of us are not sure if we will remain in business because of the high costs involved," Shoniwa said. Zimbabwe imports most of its medication requirements and the shortage of foreign currency in the mainstream economy has forced suppliers to source foreign currency in the parallel market - hence the new prices. ZMWA has also dismissed assertions that locally manufactured drugs should cost much less, arguing that 98 percent of the raw materials have to be imported. The association said the inability of the industry to access foreign currency at bank rates was making production increasingly expensive. In the interests of public health, government has in the past threatened to extend price controls to the medical services sector, to curb what it called "arbitrary prices increases". Shoniwa said the introduction of price controls in the sector would force wholesalers to stop importing and deal a final blow to the ailing public health sector. Efforts to obtain comment from Health Minister David Parirenyat were fruitless. Blessing Chebundo, the chairman of the parliamentary portfolio on public health, was also not available.