Iraqi parliament forms committee to standardize drug prices

Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraq's parliament has formed a committee to standardize medicine prices in pharmacies across the country and to require doctors to write prescriptions clearly, a member of the parliamentary Health and Environment Committee said Thursday.

The committee aims to set uniform drug prices, require electronic prescriptions, and expose corruption in the sector, Ghaith Shaba said in a press conference.

Shaba accused doctors, pharmacists, and laboratory owners of colluding to inflate prices, saying patients had been turned into a source of profit rather than treated as people in need of care. "There are lobbies among doctors, pharmacies, and laboratory owners, and the patient has become the victim."

Some labels on medicines are counterfeit, Shaba added, and those responsible will be held accountable. He said parliament would act decisively to end what he described as abuses in the sector.

As a next step, the committee will meet with the Ministry of Health and professional syndicates to agree on standardized drug pricing, according to Shaba.

Read more: Iraq’s Pharmaceutical Crisis: shortages, counterfeit drugs, and ineffective reforms