Pharmaceutical firms across the country have agreed to reduce the price of medicines approved for use under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIA) by 30 per cent.

This was after government removed VAT and other levies on local and selected imported drugs in March this year as promised in the 2018 budget.

Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber of Pharmacy Ghana, Anthony Ameka, said all their members have agreed to reduce their prices and, so, expected various government health posts to comply with the directive.

Mr Ameka said: “So, we engaged the government in 2017 for the removal of VAT and you know when you remove VAT, that includes the import duty, so, for the removal of the VAT, which was agreed, after that what the chamber did was, we engaged all the state actors to look at how we could also reduce prices of medicines, especially on the National Health Insurance…

“So, we engaged all the stakeholders and based on that we agreed to reduce the prices of medicines by 30 per cent effective 1 July 2018. Directive has gone out from the Ministry of Health and the Director General, all Regional Directors, all District Directors of Health Services and all hospitals and clinics for compliance. We are looking at all the medicines that are on national health insurance medicine list…”