Cheaper medicines in El Salvador

By Edy Guadalupe Portal, Portal & Asociados

One of the most important provisions of the Medicines Law is now in force in El Salvador and as a consequence the country has stopped selling drugs at the highest rates in the region, reducing costs to approximately 4,000 products. The reductions range from a 35 to 60% in comparison to what they previously were.

The drugs will be available at low prices and that laboratories will be able to maintain their businesses. However, four international pharmaceuticals: Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Novartis and Roche withdrew 38 products from Salvadoran market claiming that "factors such as production costs, imports, distribution and taxes on medicines represent serious difficulty for meeting maximum sales prices”. Among those 38 drugs is Viagra in all its presentations, a drug that has had a marvelous and ever-growing market in El Salvador as in the rest of the world.

The Deputy Health Minister explained that "there has been a media campaign trying to make believe that because of the new prices there will be medicine shortages because of the 38 medicines that are currently out of the sale”. He explains that for those who use Viagra, for example, the market offers a substitute called Sidelnafil (the active ingredient in Viagra), found in sufficient quantity in the drug market in El Salvador, in other presentations and lower prices.

He also explained that these 38 drugs are "best sellers” of the drug companies and thus they do not want to "risk" dropping prices in El Salvador in order to avoid compromising larger markets, such as Mexico or Brazil. The new prices will “save lives. ”Public health authorities have pointed out that the "new prices of medicines will save lives in Salvadoran society and will end with oligopolistic and abusive practices that have been tolerated up till now". Additionally, President Mauricio Funes believes that the Medicines Law is one of the most important and transcendent social conquests these days. On the other hand, many consumers are complaining the generics do not have the same effect and results than the original products.