Checks online found vaccines at private healthcare providers retailing upwards of RM170 per dose, but as of tomorrow, Sinovac has been capped at RM62 for wholesale or RM77 for customers, and Sinopharm at RM48 for wholesale and RM61 for customers.
“Ample time should have been given for those who have purchased their stock of vaccines at a higher price to offload them prior to an announcement of the price control,” Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr Koh Kar Chai told FMT.
“If there was a stakeholders’ engagement prior to this announcement, MMA is unaware of it.”
The Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) concurred with MMA’s view, with its president, Dr Kuljit Singh, hoping that the government had considered the financial implications of this policy to the industry.
“This is particularly so for those practitioners who bought large amounts of stock at a higher rate at a very early stage and still have not completed the commercial vaccination exercise,” he said.
Kuljit said the private healthcare industry hoped the price ceiling policy by the government would be a temporary one implemented only in “exceptional” circumstances.
Crucially, he said, it was hoped that the policy would not set a long-term precedent for “unrestrained government intervention” in the pricing of medical products.
Health minister Khairy Jamaluddin and domestic trade and consumer affairs minister Alexander Nanta Linggi yesterday said the ceiling price for the two vaccines was due to the high and varying prices of vaccines in the private market.
However, Koh noted that MMA did not see the rationale behind the price cap as the bulk of the country’s vaccines was given free of charge to the public under the government’s national Covid-19 immunisation programme.
“Only a small percentage of the vaccines are sold by private healthcare providers. Those who opt to pay for vaccination are those who can afford it to begin with,” he said.
He also advised the public that the ceiling price was only for the vaccines and did not include the consumables, such as syringes, which were chargeable.
Apart from consultation and procedure charges, he said, there were administrative costs that had to be borne.
Under the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011, individuals found selling the vaccines above the ceiling price are liable to be fined in court to up to RM100,000, imprisoned for up to three years, or both. A RM50,000 compound may also be issued.
Companies can be fined RM500,000 or a compound of up to RM250,000.
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