Drugs purchase scandal continues…Govt. pays $8,000 for $600 injection
JUNE 19, 2012 | BY KNEWS – also buys $1,600 aspirin for $2,700
One day after government came out in defence of reports that it purchased an $80 anti-fungal cream for $1,909 per tube, there are now more shocking details of how one contraceptive was bought at an exorbitant $8,000 for one vial.
The injection, Depo Provera, is retailed and available on prescription in the local hospitals for as low as $1,100. One major importer has told this newspaper that he has been supplying the said item to the government for $600 per vial.
Yet, the drug was sold at a whopping $8,000 for one vial by the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (New GPC) to government for distribution to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). This is 13 times higher than what it was being purchased for. [more]
