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| Huynh Tan Nam, general director of Pymepharco, talks with local reporters in HCMC on Monday - Photo: Dao Loan |
HCMC – Four local pharmaceutical firms involved in the Government’s Tamiflu-like drug stockpiling plan in 2005-2006 said on Monday they did not resort to any connections to win a contract as news reports about his had emerged recently.
Imexpharm, Stada Vietnam, Pymepharco and Pharimexco said in a joint press conference in HCMC that they had not lobby for the deal to sell Oseltamivir 75 mg pills, which is used to treat H5N1 bird flu patients, to the Ministry of Health.
The general directors of Imexpharm, Stada Vietnam, Pymepharco denied an inquiry by the Government Inspectorate which had asked these companies to deposit more than US$2.8 million in the inspectorate’s temporary account pending an official settlement.
The central inspection agency had suspected the amount was what the companies received from Stada IE Hong Kong as commissions, but the drug producers insisted it was the compensation from the foreign supplier of pharmaceutical material.
The general director of Pharimexco was not present at the news conference as he was late for his flight, reporters were told.
Local news reports that have surfaced suggest the price of imported material was too high and that Imexpharm, Stada Vietnam, and Pymepharco received commissions worth hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars from the supplier.
“In late 2005, the Ministry of Health asked pharmaceutical firms to urgently find material to produce Oseltamivir 75 mg for H5N1 treatment. We were selected because of our capacity of seeking material at a time of falling supply of flu pill material worldwide and of producing the medicine,” said Tran Thi Dao, general director of Imexpharm.
The four companies are big enough to fulfill the order from the ministry in this emergency situation as they hold 20% of the local medicine production output.
Huynh Tan Nam, general director of Pymepharco, said the firms had inked the deal to provide the drug to the ministry, not material, so it was the companies’ right to decide who supplied material. Pharimexco chose a Singaporean supplier while the other three selected Stada IE Hong Kong.
“We bought material at a higher price but we sold the drug at US$1.75 per pill, lower than the US$2.49 quoted by Roche,” Dao of Imexpharm said.
The firms claimed they sold the medicine at a loss because the price was fixed by the ministry. “Our actual price was US$1.9, US$1.91 and US$1.92 per pill. We did not want to lose the deposit of US$2 million for material, so we had to produce the medicine,” she explained.
The ministry still owned the companies VND8 billion in the deal, according to these companies.
Ong Van Dung, general director of Stada Vietnam, said Stada IE Hong Kong sent US$986,000 to Imexpharm, and US$930,000 to each of Stada Vietnam and Pymepharaco to compensate for the lower-than-expected production.
“The supplier pledged that one kilogram of material could be used to produce 10,100 pills but the actual production was lower. That was why we received the compensation. This was included in our deal,” Nam of Pymepharco said.
However, the firms declined to give figures of the real production when asked by reporters but promised to do so soon after reviewing their data.
The ministry on January 17, 2006 inked a deal to buy five million Oseltamivir 75 mg pills from the four companies at a price of US$1.75 per pill.
Dao of Imexpharm said around half of the total volume fell due but it still met quality standards. The firms are asking the ministry to consider whether to extend the expiry date. “As a rule, the producer can ask the drug administration to test the medicine to see whether to extend the date,” she said.
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