Peru: INDECOPI criticizes creation of price regulator in pharmaceuticals; advocates greater competition

Peru’s National Institute for the Defense of Competition and Intellectual Property (Indecopi) considers that the promotion of competition in the pharmaceutical products market should be prioritized ahead of the creation of a price regulator, as proposed by Congress.

During the second session of the Congress working group that analyzes the more than ten bills presented on the subject, Indecopi representative Humberto Ortiz considered that measures that generate competition such as greater access to generics should be given priority, over concrete actions affecting the retail market. “We, as Indecopi, advocate empowering competition in those markets where it can be empowered,” Ortiz said.

Dissenting from this opinion, Crisólogo Cáceres, president of the Peruvian Association of Consumers and Users (Aspec), emphasized that the constitutional system is empowered to regulate prices and that access to health is restricted by the concentration found in the pharmaceutical distribution sector after the purchase of Inkafarma by Mifarma. For his part, Luis Lazo, president of Foro Salud, added that there is a permanent blockade of private companies from public contracts to purchase medicine. “The State can not guarantee access to the health of citizens at a fair price,” he said.

In support of Indecopi’s point of view, business associations such as the Chamber of Commerce of Lima, the Association of Pharmaceutical Laboratories (Alafarpe), Comex Peru and the Peruvian-German Chamber considered that although there are still issues to be improved in the medicines market, price controls would not be ideal because it could generate shortages of medicines and fail to achieve the desired objective.
Full Content: La Republica

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