MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine pharmaceuticals agree to freeze meds prices

The laboratories still want to adjust their prices according to the evolution of the economy

The Government of Argentina and the local pharmaceutical companies have agreed to freeze the price of medications until Jan. 7, 2022, the Health Ministry and the Domestic Trade Secretariat announced Monday.

The Government also announced it would advance in the promotion of prescription drugs in accordance to their generic active ingredient instead of their commercial brand.

Pharmaceuticalk company chambers CAEME, CILFA and Cooperala said in a joint statement they had agreed to roll back the prices of presciption and over-the-counter drugs to their Nov. 1 values. The agreement had been reached last Thursday but had not been made public until Monday.

“Each associated laboratory will exercise the power to individually adhere to this initiative,” of freezing prices, the statement pointed out. The laboratories insisted, however, that they had accepted the government's proposal “within the framework of collaboration and good dialogue initiated in the Ministry of Health last Thursday, regarding the evolution of the economy and drug prices.”

 

With the pharmaceutical front taken care of for the moment, Interior Trade Secretary Roberto Feletti is quiet on tackling the oligopolies of diffuse inputs, such as iron and steel, a “concentrated market”, with industry giants such as Techint and Aluar having a “negative impact” on the competitiveness of SMEs.

According to Daniel Azpiazu's book on industry concentration, 8 production sites accounted for 69% of the iron and steel production; 96% of the aluminum production; and 79% of plastic items production. But that data is from the 2003 census. Work is under way towards updates so that new government policies can be devised according to the country's needs, it was reported.