Breaking the monopoly on medical products will reflect positively on the abundance of medicines

Experts confirmed that the Emirates Drug Corporation’s decision to oblige pharmaceutical companies to appoint more than one agent for every medical product traded in the country will have many positive repercussions in the pharmaceutical market, most notably reducing the possibility of a shortage or deficiency in any type of medicine.

On January 19, Emirates Today published an investigation into the pricing of medicines within the country, and revealed that medicines for chronic and seasonal diseases are sold in the UAE at many times their price in markets outside the country.

An expert in the pharmaceutical sector, Sameh Mabrouk, told Emirates Today that the decision of the Emirates Pharmaceutical Corporation is directly in the interest of the patient, as it reduces the possibility of a shortage or deficiency in any of the medicines, in light of preventing monopoly and allowing more than one agent to distribute them in the market. It is unlikely at the present time that it will have a clear impact on prices, because the issue of pricing is subject to governing rules, as the state imposes pricing on companies producing and distributing medicines that do not manufacture locally, according to a checklist that includes 18 countries.

He added that the decision to prevent monopoly will be in the interest of the pharmacist, as he will have access to various sources through the decision, and competition between agents will give him the advantage of obtaining an advantage in prices, and pharmaceutical companies will be able to distribute their products through more than one agent.

For his part, an official at a prominent pharmaceutical company, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that the decision is extremely important for the drug market in the country, because it eliminates problems that may lead to a shortage of a particular drug.

He added that the reliance of pharmaceutical companies on one exclusive agent to distribute their products may seem on the surface to make the matter orderly, but in practice it carries a great risk. If the agent falters financially, or is late in paying the parent company’s dues, supplies stop immediately and the company may not be at fault, and the agent may be the cause of the crisis, but in the end the one who pays the price is the patient who cannot find his medicine.

He continued that a legitimate question arises when the same medicine, with the same concentration and specifications, is available in two countries with similar economic conditions, while the price differs between them significantly. Here the discussion turns from justifying the difference between the original medicine and the alternative medicine, to a question about pricing policies and mechanisms for approving prices in each country.

For her part, Nabila Ali, a registration and pricing specialist at a pharmaceutical company, said that there is a type of medicine available in the market that has been priced by the state and these prices cannot be affected, and therefore the benefit that accrues to the patient from the decision is to ensure the availability of these medicines.

In addition, the economic expert, Najib Abdullah Al Shamsi, told Emirates Today that “the decision to oblige pharmaceutical companies to appoint more than one agent for every medical product traded in the country will have many positive effects on the markets during the coming period, by raising market competitiveness at greater rates, while ending any manifestations of monopoly in the sector, which supports the abundance of various types of medicines in large quantities, and at appropriate low prices at all times.”

For his part, retail trade affairs expert, Ibrahim Al-Bahr, said: “Medicines are important basic commodities that concern all consumer sectors in the country, and breaking monopoly in this field will increase the supply of medicines to the markets at greater rates, which is one of the important goals whose importance has become greatly apparent during the (Corona) pandemic, and therefore the recent decisions increase the chances of availability of medicines at greater rates in various emergency situations.”