Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has hinted that prices of medicines captured under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) could go down by 30 percent.
He said currently, the Ministry of Health (MoH) and players in the pharmaceutical industry are having discussions on the possibility of reductions as part of the government’s cost-cutting measures to make the NHIS more viable.
Addressing the maiden Ghana Pharma Awards at Movenpick Hotel last Friday, the vice president said, “I am told that through the efforts of the Hon Minister of Health, various stakeholders in the industry are working on reducing prices of medicines on the National Health Insurance Scheme medicine list by 30 percent.”
He said that the government was collaborating with the market forces to ensure that everybody’s interest is taken care of and said the markets cannot do it all alone to ensure medicines are available at affordable prices.
“The ultimate goal of achieving high quality healthcare will require strong partnerships among national and local governments and the private sector. Translating general principles regarding the appropriate role of government into specific actions within a rapidly changing, decentralised delivery system will require the combined efforts of the public and private sectors, of which the pharmaceutical industry plays a strategic role and influence,” the vice-president added.
He said, for instance, that the 2017 National Budget made provision for the removal of 17.5 percent Value Added Tax (VAT) on some selected imported medicines that are not locally manufactured and also added that the government by an Executive Instrument (EI) restricted 49 pharmaceutical products for local manufacturing in 2017.
He said the lack of pharmacies rural areas in particular “impedes the objective of making healthcare delivery easily accessible to all Ghanaians, with ramifications for the attainment of the SDGs.”
He appealed to the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana to extend pharmaceutical services to the deprived communities in the country.
“It is about time we earmarked a zone within a suitable location to be developed into an industrial park exclusively for pharmaceutical industries. This will lead to a generation of modern pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities which would be in most competitive position to meet all current international good manufacturing practices (GMP) standards, including the WHO-prequalification standards and to produce high quality affordable medicines not only for local consumption, but also for export into the world market,” he added.