Shortage of medicine persists despite high spending, agrees Aasandha chief

Aminath Zeeniya, the managing director of Aasandha Company, acknowledged on Tuesday that people continue to face challenges in accessing medicine, despite the high spending on it through the Aasandha scheme.

 Zeeniya, along with heads of other state agencies including State Pharmaceutical and Medical Supply Corporation (State Pharma), was summoned for questioning by the Parliament’s Government Oversight Committee on Tuesday afternoon.

Responding to questions, Zeeniya said there were major challenges in the current system.

She said that while Aasandha refers to the list approved by the Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA) when dispensing medicine, there’s no proper checks to ensure pharmacies have the medicine in the essential medicine list when it gets registered.

“I, too, agree that people are unable to access medicine. We continue to receive complaints. They are unable to get medicine under the scheme for their prescription. Despite the huge cost [spending] that gets put into it, difficulties in accessing medicine under the scheme persist,” she said.

Zeeniya told the committee that Aasandha maintaining the list of medicine vendors approved by the MFDA during the empanelment process is something that draws public criticism and poses challenges.

She said that there’s currently no national-level mechanism to monitor the quantity of all stocks of medicine imported into the country.

Zeeniya said that one of the biggest challenges to improving access to medicine is the frequent switches in the brands of medicine that are imported into the country.

She noted that Aasandha coverage is provided only for registered pharmaceutical brands.

“When it doesn’t get added [to the list], patients who go with their prescriptions are told that it isn’t covered under Aasandha. When we check, the medicine in question isn’t added to their [the pharmacies’] registered list. It is also the responsibility of pharmacies to add it to the list so it can be provided under Aasandha. They are supposed to add it to the list along with the price. There’s no control in this admi the frequent switch in brands,” she said.

Highlighting on challenges in controlling the price of essential medicine, Zeeniya said that some pharmacies sell medicine at the low prices, but bill Aasandha at a higher rate. She added that due to the lack of mechanism to control the wholesale rate, some pharmacies were found to have been selling medicine at a markup of up 600 percent two years back.

Zeeniya said that despite the attempt to implement block procurement to address this issue, the authorities were able to import only a few medicines under the policy, and it also proved troublesome to private businesses.

Zeeniya said that it was crucial to find the reason why accessibility issues continue to persist, despite Aasandha coverage for over 3,000 medicines.

The lack of availability of medicine remains an issue of deep concern to the public.