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Singaporeans Purchasing Medications for Chronic Health Conditions Overseas
Speakers: Ong Ye Kung, Victor Lye
Mr Victor Lye asked the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health (a) whether the Ministry has studied (i) the number of Singaporeans purchasing chronic medications overseas and (ii) price differentials for commonly prescribed chronic medications between Singapore and comparable markets, including Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand; and (b) whether greater use of pool procurement, reference pricing or regulated parallel sourcing could reduce medication costs and expenditure under CHAS and MediSave.
Mr Ong Ye Kung: The Ministry of Health does not track the number of Singaporeans who purchase chronic medications overseas. Prices paid by other countries are also confidential commercial information.
It is common practice for pharmaceutical companies to maintain price differentials for patented drugs across geographical markets, taking into account the size and purchasing power of the markets. For a small market that is deemed to have high purchasing power, Singapore's position is not advantageous.
To manage drug prices for the public healthcare sector, we adopt various strategies, such as pooled procurement and value-based pricing negotiations, that take into account overseas drug prices where relevant. We have had some successes, for example, through the Cancer Drug List mechanism, we could secure better pricing for cancer drugs. These strategies apply to drugs for chronic diseases too.