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Legislator claims BNHI favors foreign companies

Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Tseng Tsan-teng (曾燦燈) yesterday accused the Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) of discrimination in favor of foreign pharmaceutical companies in the setting of prices for medicines.

Tseng said at a press conference that although domestic companies have the ability to produce medicines as effectively as foreign manufacturers with the same materials, the bureau's pricing policy favors the latter.

According to Tseng, the BNHI guarantees that foreign pharmaceutical companies with medication patents enjoy 20-year licenses, during which time they can offer hospitals and clinics discounts of up to 16 percent.

This is higher than the maximum 12 percent rate that domestic pharmaceutical companies with copyright licenses can legally offer.

The 16-percent "reasonable discount zone" for foreign manufacturers leaves domestic pharmaceutical factories unable to compete with foreign companies, he said.

Tseng said that several hospital presidents had told him they usually obtain supplies from the pharmaceutical companies that offer them the biggest price discounts.

Tseng suggested that the bureau deny hospitals the right to negotiate discounts or revoke the discount zone to guarantee domestic companies "a level playing field."

"This is a far more important issue than the presidential recall," Tseng told reporters, demanding more attention for the issue.

In the bureau's defense, the high commissioner of the Task Force of Medication, Chen Shang-pin (陳尚彬), said that both domestic and foreign companies with patents for their innovations enjoy the 16-percent discount rate.

Chen said, however, that the BNHI has to offer incentives for foreign pharmacies to import the latest medication for illnesses such as cancer so that patients can receive treatment as soon as possible.

Chen said that the 16-percent price difference Tseng mentioned was not the current figure.

He said that a fifth investigation of medication prices had not yet been completed and that the bureau may change the 16-percent discount rate for foreign and local pharmacies that hold a patent license for their products.
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