Elena Fernandez, director of Promese, the governmental generic medicine program, told Hoy newspaper yesterday that medicines in the Dominican Republic are the second most expensive in the world. She said the medicine market in the DR is rife with fraud, contraband and illegal trade, in addition to high profitability. She explained that only pharmacies apply fixed margins, authorized at 30% profit. All the rest are set by the unregulated market.
Fernandez said that she favored the tender system for the purchase of medicines. In her opinion, medicines would cost less if they were purchased in bulk by a centralized organization, be it Promese or any other. “If all institutions bought in bulk and using tenders, the resulting competitiveness would lower costs,” she said. She highlighted that Promese is now issuing tenders for its supplies.
She commented that the pharmaceutical industry has a grip on doctors through offering travel and other perks, in return for them prescribing their drugs, even though cheaper and equally effective medicines may be available.