Pharmacy Price Inflation Leads to 5.4 Billion UZS in Excessive Profits
Competition Committee Uncovers Price Inflation Issues in Pharmacies
Since the beginning of the year, the Competition Committee has been actively investigating price inflation issues in pharmacies across Uzbekistan. A total of 473 pharmacies have been identified for unfair pricing practices.
The committee conducted inspections based on reports received through the Fair Tech system, which indicated violations of reference prices. In total, 49,400 violations were discovered at 133 wholesale and 340 retail points, resulting in unjustified earnings of 5.4 billion UZS.
Interestingly, a significant portion of these earnings, 1.9 billion UZS, was concentrated in Tashkent. 71 establishments in the capital city were found to have issued 17,200 receipts with inflated prices. Following Tashkent was Namangan region with 1.01 billion UZS in violations and Surkhandarya with 914 million UZS.
Despite having the highest number of pharmacies with violations, Tashkent region reported a lower total income from inflated prices compared to other regions. On the other hand, Khorezm and Kashkadarya had the fewest number of violating points, with 5 pharmacies and 18.8 million UZS in discrepancies, respectively.
In response to these findings, the Competition Committee has published lists of pharmacies engaged in price inflation on their official pages and is taking appropriate measures against them. Additionally, in October 2022, the president signed a decree to ensure the quality of medicines, which includes real-time price comparison when registering receipts through the Soliq app.
If an inflated markup is detected during the comparison, the consumer protection authority is notified for verification. Any failure to indicate the full cost of medicines on the receipt is considered a violation of trading rules. This initiative aims to crack down on price inflation practices in pharmacies and protect consumers from unfair pricing.
