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View all search resultsCooperatives to sell drugs at lower cost than retailers
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Affordable care: A seller serves a customer on July 21 at a pharmacy during the launch ceremony for a cooperative under the government's Red and White Cooperatives program, in Serang regency, Banten, West Java. (Antara/Angga Budhiyanto)
T
he government plans to make the Red and White Village Cooperatives (KDMP) the main option for people to buy medication by selling some at lower prices than those offered by modern retailers.
Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono said on Tuesday that KDMP could cut retail drug prices by 20 percent thanks to buying in bulk, given the volumes KDMP nationwide would be procuring, which should translate into discounts of 40-50 percent from the suppliers.
“If [KDMP] sell, say, generic drugs, they will be selling at a [lower cost], about 10 to 20 percent [lower] than those sold at Indomaret,” Dante said, referring to the nationwide retail chain, according to Kontan.
Every one of the 80,081 KDMP was to sell drugs, Dante explained. He asked both private and state-owned pharma companies for big discounts, even bigger than those given to hospitals.
The deputy minister went on to say that drug selling at the cooperatives would use the consignment model, whereby sellers retain ownership until the goods are sold to end users and the retailers get a commission for the sold goods.
This type of contract differs from the model of selling directly to retailers, who then assume and keep ownership of the goods regardless of whether or not they manage to sell them on.
The idea of adopting the arrangement is to push down initial capital, and it would allow the cooperatives to restock expiring ones.
