Consumer Groups Support Medicine Price Display Law: Transparency for the People, Upholding Consumer Rights

Malaysian consumer groups welcome the enforcement of the medicine price display law, effective 1st May 2025, as a landmark step towards greater transparency, accountability, and consumer empowerment in healthcare. This new regulation, known as the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering (Price Marking for Drug) Order 2025 and gazetted under the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011, requires all private healthcare facilities and community pharmacies to clearly display the prices of all medicines for human use, including prescription and non-prescription drugs, traditional medicines, and health supplements.

The new law is a critical step toward addressing longstanding issues of price opacity and wide price variations that have disadvantaged consumers. This new law is a price display mechanism, and must not be confused with price control. It is the fundamental right of a consumer to be informed, to be heard, to choose and to be safe in relation to the goods which they consume. Medicines are an essential good where there is information asymmetry in its provision and consumption. Hence, by requiring price display, the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDN) has taken the step to uphold consumers’ universal rights to information and choice, allowing Malaysians to compare medicine prices, plan their healthcare expenses, and avoid being overcharged. With Malaysia’s medical inflation rate reaching 15%, well above regional and global averages, transparent pricing is a necessary first step towards curbing unjustified price hikes and protect household budgets.

The law has come about after an extensive public consultation process lasting more than 5 years. The initial intention of the Ministry of Health was a proposed pilot mechanism to have caps on the mark up on selected single source prescription medicines to deal with high medicines prices in Malaysia.

Price regulation is recommended by the World Health Organization, especially in the private healthcare sector where consumers pay out of pocket (OOP) for medicines, by setting maximum wholesale and retail prices in the pharmaceutical supply chain for prescription medicines where there is only one supplier. The monopolies enjoyed by single source suppliers allow them complete pricing discretion leading in some cases to unaccountable, exorbitant and unaffordable high medicines for both patients and health systems globally. The result can be financial catastrophe for households in the case of cancer medicines for example, and stretched healthcare budgets resulting in prioritising and rationalising by the government to meet the nation’s health needs. Due to severe opposition, largely by industry and some professional bodies, to this price mark-up regulation, the initial mechanism proposed by MOH was dropped to our disappointment.

The current price display mechanism under KPDN in collaboration with the Ministry of Health is a compromise and the minimum that must be done by the Government to ensure the carrying out of its mandate which includes promoting ethical and sustainable domestic trade while protecting consumer interests towards a better quality of life.

On the suggestion that medicine price display could negatively impact doctors’ earnings or the sustainability of private clinics we stress that price display must not be conflated with the issue of earnings and sustainability of incomes of doctors. The price display mechanism addresses the fundamental right of the consumer or patient to be informed about the good being purchased. This policy focuses solely on the pricing of medicines, not on the fees or income of healthcare professionals such as doctors. Doctors’ earnings relate to consultation fees, operational costs, and remuneration, which are separate financial considerations, involving different revenue streams, coming under different ministries and under different policy and regulatory frameworks.

Transparent medicine pricing will in fact build trust and confidence in the private healthcare system, benefiting both patients and ethical healthcare providers. It does not undermine the professionalism or financial sustainability of doctors, whose earnings are determined by their expertise, service quality, and regulated consultation fees, not by hidden medicine markups.

Our Call to Action

We urge all healthcare providers to comply with the law in the spirit of consumer rights and public interest. We also call on the public to support this important step to provide information to consumers and report any non-compliance to the authorities.

We pledge to support KPDN and MOH to monitor the implementation of the price display mechanism.

Let us work together for a fairer, more transparent, and more affordable healthcare system for all Malaysians.

Mohideen Abdul Kader
President
Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP)

Dr. Saravanan Thambirajah
Chief Executive Officer
Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (FOMCA)

M. S. Anuar Mahmod
Secretary General, RURAL MALAYSIA
Persatuan Pengguna Luar Bandar & Ekologi Malaysia

Mohd Azmi bin Abdul Hamid
President
TERAS Pengupayaan Melayu

Shamsudin Bin Mohamad Fauzi
President
Persatuan Keselamatan Pengguna Kuala Lumpur (PKPKL)

Press Statement, 2 May 2025