There are pricing anomalies in some pharmaceutical products despite price control on certain medications.
The Consumer Council says they continue to receive complaints pertaining to the breaches and unfair trade practices in the sector.
Council Chief Executive Seema Shandil says there are instances where pharmacies do not display information on the prices of essential and commonly used drugs.
“We have seen big price differences in the same product sold by different pharmacies. We need to notice that there is no price control so the pharmacies set their own prices.”
Shandil says Pharmacies also continue to violate labeling requirements.
“They continue to sell expiry products. We have also found instances where another sticker was pasted on top of the expired date and it was still on sale for the consumers. Some even bought it and used it and only came to know when they peeled the top layer off.”
The Fiji Pharmaceutical Society claims that not all medication falls under price control.
The Price Control Order came into effect around 2011 when the price control list came out for several pharmaceutical items.
It is believed that the order needs to be reviewed and amended to address Fiji’s increasing cost of health care.
