The price of drugs and medical kits to go down by 47.5 percent in Tanzania after the government medical supplier started purchasing producers directly from manufacturers, reports the Daily News.
Tanzania’s Ministry of health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children stopped buying drugs from business people who were inflating prices after an order from President John Magufuli.
Health Minister Ummy Mwalimu said the government is enjoying buying prices lowered by 15 to 80 percent from the manufacturers compared to the business people.
“I now direct the councils and hospitals to reduce prices of drugs because they will also be buying them at low prices from the Medical Stores Department (MSD),” Ms Mwalimu said.
The Minister said the price of medicines have gone down, such as hepatitis B vaccine has dropped to 5,300/- (2.4 USD) from 22,000/- (10 USD). Medical kits have also gone down, for instance, the manufacturers sell bed sheets at 5 USD while middlemen were selling at a price of 10USD each.
“Now bed sheets are available at cheap prices. I don’t expect to see hospital beds without sheets,” Ms Mwalimu said.
MSD has entered into an agreement with 73 manufacturers of drugs and medical kits, 10being local producers while the rest are foreign companies from 20 countries such as Kenya, Uganda, US, India, South Africa and China which will be supplying Tanzania with 178 types of drugs and 195 medical kits.
