The Minister of Health, Abel Salinas, stated that the Government will tackle the market concentration by buying remedies in bulk, in an effort to make them more affordable to the population. He maintained that the distribution points would be pharmacies of public hospitals, although they would also be obtained with prescriptions that are not issued in public establishments.

The Ministry of Health, in the framework of the purchase of Quicorp (company that owns Quimica Suiza and pharmaceutical chains such as Mifarma, Arcángel, Fasa and BTL) by InRetail (Inkafarma) and the concentration of 95% of the pharmacy market, will seek to offer generic medicines to the population. In this regard, Salinas said they need to ‘strengthen the direction of medicine’ and ‘have generic, safe, good-quality medicines available to the user’.

However, the dean of the Pharmaceutical Chemical College, Javier Llamoza, considered that this measure would not be enough to balance the market. ‘It is not enough to improve public purchases, because the Peruvian government is not as dynamic as the market, and it is being eaten by it’. he said.

He added that ‘when there is a dominant position in the market, prices may go down or up’.