In Algeria, some large pharmaceutical companies, which take advantage of the market while reluctant to invest in local production, are in the crosshairs of the government.
After having denounced, on March 1, a big drug overbilling scandal that took place in 2019, the Minister of the Pharmaceutical Industry Lotfi Benbahmed, threw this Wednesday, April 27 another stone in the fed up of the big pharmaceutical laboratories present in Algeria.
He seriously accused the Danish giant Novo Nordisk of questionable practices in supplying the Algerian market with insulin. After obtaining an import program for 2022 of three million units of insulin Novorapid from the Algerian authorities at the end of 2021, Novo Nordisk behaved strangely.
“Novo Nordisk obtained an import program for 2022 of three million units at the end of 2021. But it brought back small quantities, 100,000 to 200,000 boxes per month”, revealed the minister in an interview with Santé News. Continuing, he criticized the Danish giant for “creating tensions which can cause some fear among patients and doctors”.
“They go to doctors to frighten patients into believing that there will be disruptions in the market and that they will no longer be able to find their products”, further accused the minister who gave an explanation for Novo’s behavior. Nordisk, of which Algeria is one of the most important markets in the Mena region. “We have lowered their prices by 20%,” said Lotfi Benbahmed in a statement to the TSA.
The services of his ministry have indeed discovered that Novo Nordisk, as well as other foreign laboratories, sell their products more expensively in Algeria compared to the prices they practice for example with Tunisia, according to Lotfi Benbahmed.
A bill to be able to crackdown
“The prices of insulin from Novo Nordisk in Algeria were higher compared to those practiced in Tunisia. We have therefore lowered the prices (of imports) according to those of Tunisia and we have reduced the import bill for medicines in general”, explained the minister, who is proposing a provision within the framework of the law of finance that will allow the government to crack down on pharmaceutical companies guilty of speculative practices.
This kind of financial sanctions have been in place for years in Europe against pharmaceutical companies that are failing in their commitments to ensure the availability of their products, he recalls.
“We are going to introduce the possibility of financially sanctioning pharmaceutical laboratories present in Algeria. Currently, only administrative sanctions are possible,” he explains.
In Algeria, Novo Nordisk is not only accused of questionable practices and of selling its insulin at a higher price than in Tunisia but it is also accused of dragging its feet for years in the production project for this strategic product, as part of a joint venture with the public group Saidal. A 20-year-old project that is slow to see the light of day.
“Insulin is a strategic product for Algeria. We want to produce it locally to ensure our independence. It is a question of health sovereignty, ”says Lotfi Benbahmed.
But Novo Nordisk currently prefers to import than produce insulin in Algeria.
“The production of insulin in Algeria will allow us to save at least 30% on this product and will secure the supply for our diabetic patients”, indicates Mr. Benbahmed to underline the importance of the project to produce insulin in Algeria.
