Manuel Tejada, Deputy Minister of Public Health, said that drug supplies to public hospital stores are being resumed. He said the suspension was due to inventories being carried out in the Promese warehouses to determine the existence of unregistered pharmaceuticals, as claimed by drug importers and drug manufacturers. He mentioned that the drug companies are more interested in reducing Promese’s share of the market than in public health. The low cost medicines available at the government-run drug stores have reduced pharmaceutical company sales, he explained. Daniel Garcia Archibald, a spokesman for Promese, said the department has the same RD$20 million budget to stock 859 drug stores that it had when there were only 325 stores at the start of the government. He also said that consumer demand has increased given the high cost of medicines in private city pharmacies.
