Algeria medicine companies ask for new measure

Algeria’s national union for medicines industry called on the government to oblige Algerian doctors in public and private sectors to not prescribe medicines with their commercial brand.

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• This comes to reduce the cost of medicines import estimated at $2 billion in 2008 and to guarantee financial balance of the social security fund.
• General director of a pharmaceutical laboratory Miloud Cherif told Echorouk this measure is the main and sole grantee for the success of the generic medicines encouraging policy.
• “The decree on the medicines reimbursement adopted by the government has made international laboratories obliged to reduce their products price by 50 to 70 percent,” he added.
• “The government’s decision unveiled evil intentions of some foreign laboratories which sold medicines at 2,800 DZ for one single box.”
• “When the decision came into force, they reduced the price to 550 DZ. That means those laboratories were blackmailing the social security department which reimbursed $1.4 billion last year.”