The Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, inaugurated a 22-member National Medicine Price (NMP) Committee in Accra, yesterday.
The Committee is chaired by the Deputy Minister of Health, Mr Alexander Abban with Nana Kwabena Adjei-Mensah, Dr Emmanuel Ankrah Odame, Dr Martha Gyansa-Lutterodt, Mr Daniel Azubila, Mrs Jocelyn Azeez, Dr Angela Ackon, Mr Daniel Nuer,Mr Zaahid Yusif Doku, Dr Edith Annan, Mr Peter Gyasi Darkwa and Dr Daniel Ankrah as members.
Others include Mr Alex Ofori Mensah, Dr Francis Asenso-Boadi, Mr Gopal Rao, Mr Kofi Addo Agyekum, Dr Augustina Koduah, Mr Philip Tagboto, Dr Charles Allotey, Dr Jacob Omari Appah, Mr Leslie Vanderpuje and Mrs Rita Owusu Donkor.
The committee would have oversight and management responsibility over medicine and other health technologies pricing system in the country.
It would be also expected to set and implement a scheme of recommended price mark ups for the public and private sectors and ensure adherence so that prices of medicines and other health technologies remained at a desired optimal level.
In addition, the committee would publish maximum sales prices for the public and private sector for all essential medicines, including programme drugs, new and expensive single sources product, medicines under patent and other health technologies.
Mr Agyeman-Manu said the committee, formed last year, was to facilitate negotiations on pricing, find data to help them compare with medicine prices elsewhere.
According to him, the committee was formed because government reduced taxes and took off taxes of some medications to bring down medicineprices.
He indicated that prices of medicines were adjusted by government to ensure that health insurance does not spend much on medicines for the sustainability of the schemes.
Mr Alexander Abban, Deputy Minister of Health said members of the committee with their diverse background work hard to ensure that the goal of government to achieve universal health coverage for the country is realised.
BY ABEDUWAA LUCY APPIAH
