The price of medicines had been increasing, after the record of 45% registered in November of last year. However, according to the survey of The voicein April that rise stopped.
Last month, medicinal products registered a slight increase of 1.44%, while over-the-counter products grew by 4.68%.
The value of the remedies had been increasing since November, when the freeze ordered by former President Alberto Fernández expired. Starting with the price liberalization ordered by Javier Milei and the megadevaluation in December, these essential products began to climb, and registered increases of 30% in November and 45% the following month.
General inflation also skyrocketed in those two months. Between November and December, it went from 12% to 25.5% monthly.
The State stopped intervening in prices and all the values of the economy skyrocketed, something similar to what happened during the Rodrigazo of 1975. At that time, Isabel Perón’s former Minister of Economy stopped regulating prices and an adjustment occurred abrupt and sudden, just like last year.
The data
Returning to the survey of medications, in March the increases began to moderate, but they were not enough to reach single digits (9.5%) and in April they practically stopped. The data comes from the survey carried out by The voice based on the 60 best-selling drugs. Those sold over the counter reported a greater increase: 4.68%.
The value of these products is also monitored by the observatory of the College of Pharmacists of Córdoba. Based on 18,517 remedies, the increase reported in April was 5.34%.
Despite this decrease, the average year-on-year increase remains high: it reached 362%. So far this year, the increase was 29.83%.
The evolution of medicines is closely followed by various sectors linked to health. Prepaid medicine companies applied large increases at the end of last year and at the beginning of 2024, also when they were freed and exempted from raising fees as much as they wanted.
The main argument was the increase they had experienced in costs, due to medications and medical technology.
By category
The survey of this journal allows comparisons to be made according to items or active ingredients. That is, how much the products that have certain effects on the body increased.
Anti-allergy products – whose demand increases both in autumn and spring – experienced increases greater than the general average. Its price grew by 3.37%. Anti-inflammatories also rose above the average, with 3%.
Unmet expectations
Iván Ase, a doctor with a master’s degree in Public Health, clarified that the price of medicines was never behind. Until December, they always kept pace with general inflation, and even exceeded it. There were times when the national government agreed to limits or freezes with the pharmaceutical industry. But, as soon as that agreement expired, the laboratories increased again.
“Until December, the medications were not backlogged. On the contrary, they have always been increasing above inflation,” he explained. “Except in the periods in which a freeze was agreed with the Government, the following month they raised everything they had lost.”
It was considered that the exorbitant increases that were recorded in December had to do with the fact that several sectors of the economy, including medicine, speculated that the dollar was going to continue skyrocketing. Which was going to be between $2,000 or $2,500.
“I believe that the increases in December were basically explained by the devaluation. Since laboratory costs are dollarized, clearly that month there was a terrible price stampede,” he added.
“There was so much uncertainty in December that many prices were set on the assumption that the dollar had no ceiling, that it could end up anywhere. So the laboratories, like other areas of the economy, set prices in that magnitude,” he said.
However, the dollar did have a ceiling and stagnated. “As the North American currency has been frozen, inflation in medicines has begun to decrease and even stop. When the dollar did not skyrocket, the same thing happened as in many prices in the economy,” he highlighted.
The brake, in other words, had to do with the expectations of a dollar without a ceiling that – for the moment – was not met. “Prices moderated their rise. “That was seen in many sectors of the economy.”
Ase pointed out that there is one more component: the recession and the drop in consumption. “That is surely having an impact on the laboratories. The adjustment is so large that it imposes a limit on the increase in drug prices. There is no money on the street. There is no one to spend,” he said.
This causes some products to slow down their increases. And some have gone down. “We are in a recessive context in which nobody consumes practically anything. Of course, with a very high social cost,” concluded the specialist.
