THE Cabinet should refer the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering (Price Marking for Drugs) Order 2025 to the Attorney-General’s Chambers to review its legality before enforcing it.
It is just for all sectors trying to protect the patients’ rights pertaining to reasonable medicine prices and medical consultation fees, but this is not within the scope of jurisdiction in the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011 which must be interpreted in conjunction with the Consumer Protection Act 1999 and other relevant laws to avoid making mistakes in law.
The Minister of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living, Datuk Amirzan Mohd. Ali announced in May this year that his Ministry has formulated and gazetted the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering (Price Making for Drugs) Order 2025 in accordance with Section 10 of the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011, requiring private hospitals, clinics and pharmacies to display drug prices.
The trade minister claimed that the Act empowered his ministry to do so because the Act stipulates that the price of any “goods” and “services” provided to consumers. The Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011 must be interpreted in conjunction with other laws to avoid unnecessary misinterpretation and wrongful enforcement of the law:
(1). The Consumer Protection Act 1999 defines the power to protect consumers as falling within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living, but Section 2(2)(f) of the Consumer Protection Act 1999 states that healthcare and other professional fields under Section 2(2)(e) of the same law, are governed by other professional laws and are not within the jurisdiction of the consumer ministry.
(2). Although Sections 4 and 5 of the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2018 state that officials of the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living have the power to determine the maximum and minimum prices of “any services and goods”, other professional laws, such as the Medical Act 1971 and the Private healthcare Facilities and Services act 1998, state that all charges for medical services are within the power of the Ministry of Health and its agencies. The Consumer Protection Act 1999 also clearly states that medical and all other professional charges are not within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs.
(3). All medicines are not ordinary consumer goods, but are registered and regulated under the Poisons Act 1952, the Drug Sales Act 1952 and the Drug and Cosmetic Control Regulations 1984. The laws state that the sales and licences of the relevant medicines are reviewed, approved and governed by the respective agencies under the Ministry of Health. The Ministry of Domestic Trade and Lost of Living does not have the expertise, authority and jurisdiction to regulate the licensing of medicines and other controlled poisons. Therefore, it does not have the jurisdiction and authority to stipulate how any pharmaceutical items should be priced.
The said minister has misquoted and misinterpreted the relevant laws, and he called on the cabinet to salvage and improve the administrative coordination between various cabinet ministers and governmental departments.
No cabinet minister should interpret the laws unilaterally, but must submit the relevant laws to the Attorney General’s Office for further review to avoid mishaps. Regarding the power to regulate medical services and medications, the existing relevant medical laws must be amended when necessary to empower the Ministry of Health to do so which has all the necessary expertise and jurisdiction.
Protecting patients’ rights is the responsibility of the medical fraternity, and the pharmaceutical industry has always had certain market rules for drug prices, and each pharmaceutical manufacturer will have a so-called recommended selling price (Recommended Selling Price) for each drug. Ultimately, patients will benefit from a more transparent system, but the powers and authority to regulate drug prices naturally falls within the scope of the Ministry of Health’s jurisdiction and authority.
Many patients do complain that some private hospitals charge much more for medications than the market. There are many large big chain pharmacies that offer drugs at prices much lower than the market price by up to 75%, and some even illegally provide patients with consultations out of their scope of their professional capacity, privately tampering with patients’ prescription drugs that lead to many complications.
Our health policies and the pricing in the drug market have to be better regulated by an indisputable clarity in law to coordinate doctors, paramedics and pharmacists, so as to achieve a systematic monitoring of healthcare delivery and avoid undue competition and profiteering that would in turn adversely affect the patients’ right, while maintaining the ethics, humanitarianism and morale of the medical fraternity. – July 18, 2025
***Dr. Boo Cheng Hau is Democratic Action Party’s Taman Ungku Tun Aminah Branch publicity secretary