Jakarta – Despite a health ministry circular instructing pharmaceutical industries to "self-assess" the prices of their products in order to make them more affordable to the public, most drugs remain beyond the reach of the poor, according to the Indonesian Health Consumer's Empowerment Foundation (YPKKI).

The foundation said that the health ministry issued a decree last month, addressed to the directors of pharmaceutical companies, calling on them to "reappraise" their prices, following on public criticism about the high prices of medicines.

"But the manufacturers have not complied. They argue that prices should not be regulated. Instead, they have demanded that prices be determined by the market," said Marius Widjajarta, chairman of YPKKI.

Marius said that prices for medicines in Indonesia remained high, not because of high raw material costs, but rather due to other expenses such as marketing and promotion.

"The price of medicines in the market at present is double the cost of production," said Marius. "Around 300 percent [of total production costs] are spent on promotion, such as organizing conferences to introduce new products to doctors and placing advertisements in the media," said Marius, who is a member of the Team for Drugs Pricing Evaluation, which operates under the coordination of the health ministry.

He also said that supposedly cheaper generic medicines have not overcome the problem. "The price of generic drugs here is still higher than in other countries," Marius said.

Sutoto, the director of Fatmawati Hospital added that people are still reluctant to take generic medicines as many doubt their effectiveness. He said the number of consumers of generic medicines was higher in other ASEAN countries.

"In other countries the consumption of generic (medicines) could reach 30 to 40 percent, while in Indonesia, I think it's only 10 percent," said Sutoto, who said that 60 to 70 percent of medicines used in his own hospital are generic.

Marius also blamed the pharmaceutical industry for not supporting the use of generic drugs. He said that the industry had not complied with the ministry's regulation released in August last year, which stated that producers must attach the word "generic" to the labels of such drugs.

"According to the regulation, the word 'generic' should be capitalized and stand out above the name of the product. But the manufacturers have not complied with the regulation; they are afraid that their product will be considered cheap by the public," said Marius, referring to the fact that many people associate cheap products with lower quality.