Putrajaya is in the final stages of identifying a mechanism to standardise drug prices and ensure they are affordable to the public, according to Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
"The Health Ministry is currently identifying a few drugs and setting the prices at an affordable level," he told a press conference after attending the I-Keep Carnival in Kuala Lumpur today.
"Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad will announce (the prices of the medicine).
"I was made to understand that the Health Ministry is in the final stage of determining the mechanism to standardise drug prices."
Last November, Dzulkefly announced that the prices of medicine would be controlled through a Price Control and Anti-Profiteering (PCAP) Act.
Saifuddin said that his ministry, with its 2,300 enforcement officers, is entrusted with enforcing the price controls after implementation.
In May, Dzulkefly said that the cabinet had entrusted two ministries to regulate medicine prices, and would gazette regulations under the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011.
Meanwhile, Saifuddin said the government planned to increase the Consumer Economic Shop Initiative (I-Keep) to 500 shops by next year, compared to 368 shops at present.
There are a total of 65 I-Keep shops in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, he added.
A total of 10 strategic partners are participating in the I-Keep shops concept, wherein retailers, who operate their own premises, provide necessities that are 30 percent cheaper than on the market.
The government is no longer continuing the Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia (KR1M) initiative, which saw funds given to one particular company to open grocery stores nationwide. - Mkini
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