translated from Spanish: Up to 81% of profits have pharmacies for sale of drugs

A report prepared by the National Health Services System (CENABAST) supply plant revealed that smoked and Salcobrand pharmacies have a gross profit margin of up to 81% for drug sales. The study was required by the Ministry of Health (Minsal) under the “Drugs II” bill, which aims to lower the costs of remedies and improve access to them, according to Mercury. The investigation of Cenabast was carried out by compared the price of 115 medicines, with and without prescription, taking as reference the cost of sale by the laboratories, and the one that establish the pharmacies smoked and Salcobrand to then sell them to the population. In this sense, profit margins of up to 81% were detected. The specific case is the Meloxicam remedy, which the Pasteur laboratory sells to Salcobrand in $320, and the latter then sells it in $1,700. The Minister of Health, Emilio Santelices, stressed the importance of advancing the “Drugs II” bill, to lower the cost of drugs. He also noted that bioequivalence remedies should be given importance. It should be noted that in the aforementioned study, Cenabast could not incorporate the prices of green cross pharmacies, since it could not have access to such information.

Original source in Spanish