OBJECTIVES: To date, there is no stipulated law to control medicine prices in Malaysia. This free pricing policy has led to disparity of prices between innovator and generic medicine among the private healthcare settings, namely general practitioner (GP) clinics (independent, chained) and retail pharmacies (RPs) (independent, chained). This study was carried out to evaluate the medicine (innovator, generic) prices variation among the RPs in Malaysia.

METHODS: Simulated client method was adopted in this study to obtain the actual selling medicine prices in the RPs in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. A total of 142 RPs were selected, using simple random sampling technique. Five data collectors were recruited and trained as simulated clients to elicit the actual selling price for the 10 selected medicines (both innovator and lowest price generic) which are highly used in Malaysia.

RESULTS: For innovator, only salbutamol 100 mcg inhaler (200 doses) (p=0.043) and gliclazide 80 mg tablet (p=0.043) were sold at a lower price at chain RPs when compared to independent RPs. As for lowest price generic products, only furosemide 40 mg tablet (p=0.002) and metoprolol 100 mg tablet (p=0.036) were found to be cheaper at the chained RPs than the independent RPs. Of note, simvastatin 20 mg tablet (Zocor^®) was sold at a higher median (range) price at the chained RPs than the independent RPs [RM 2.63 (2.19-3.80) versus RM 2.32 (1.17-4.13), p=0.009].

CONCLUSIONS: It was interesting to find that the perception of cheaper price of medicines in chained pharmacies as compared to independent pharmacies is fallacious. The findings of this study will facilitate policy makers in drawing conclusion about the differences of medicine prices and will be useful in devising appropriate policy for medicine price control in Malaysia.