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Published on November 25, 2007

Mongkol wants the GPO to be exempted from the new procurement process of state agencies, which would revoke all special purchase procedures.

The new process supports free competition and would cancel all special purchase procedures enjoyed by some enterprises, including the GPO.

"We agree that free competition should be promoted but given the current circumstances, the competition will not be fair to the GPO," Mongkol said.

The minister said the GPO normally draws up its price list years in advance. Private drug manufacturers would be able to compare the price and offer better deals.

"The GPO also strictly issues receipts and many pharmacies are reluctant to order products from the GPO because they will not be able to evade tax," Mongkol said.

He also pointed out that the GPO had to shoulder the cost of manufacturing rarely-used medicines, which private drug manufacturers do not manufacture.

"The GPO is also required to manufacture drugs under compulsory licensing for free," Mongkol said and added the agency also gave free medicines to disaster victims, something private drug manufacturers rarely did.

Meanwhile, Chernporn Tengamnuay, chairman of the Pharmaceutical Industry Club under the Thai Industries Federation, said the Finance Ministry should insist on ending the GPO's monopoly.

"It's not true that liberalisation will increase the price of medicines. On the other hand, this will make the price more reasonable because some medicines made by the private sector are cheaper than the GPO's," he said.

Compared to the low quality medicine claimed by the GPO's labour union, he said the Food and Drug Administration is strictly controlled because it planned to promote local medicines to be acceptable in international markets within five years.

He said the liberalisation did not mean price dumping by international firms. "If they worry about this issue, they should call for anti-dumping measures rather than protesting about ending the monopoly," he added.

The Nation