More shocking drug purchases revealed…New GPC sells $2,000 ‘pressure tablets’ for $18,000
…under-fire, calls for value for money audit
Government’s largest supplier of pharmaceutical supplies has backed down and is now calling on the Auditor General to carry out a value for money audit.
Over the past days, the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (New GPC), has come under fire for selling several products at exorbitant prices to government. 
When Kaieteur News published the report on the sale of Ketoconazole cream bought by the institution for $1,909 per tube, it reported that the same tube was being retailed in the stores for $80. The Ministry of Health and the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) both came out in defence of the purchases saying that the price they paid was ‘OK’.
Soon after, Kaieteur News reported that the New GPC was also charging the Georgetown Public Hospital $8,000 for a $600 injection.
The call for the audit would come even as more revelations surface that drug prices were hugely inflated, yet the authorities accepted the final prices as provided by New GPC, paying over millions of dollars, and raising serious questions whether taxpayers received value for their money.
In the latest development, Atenolol, for hypertension (high blood pressure), was supplied by the same company to the government for $18,000 for a bottle containing 1,000 tablets.
Kaieteur News, through its New York agent, was able to secure quotations for a bottle containing the same 1,000 Atenolol tablets for as low as $2,000.
Local pharmacies are retailing it on average of $6-$10 each.
Several pharmacists and persons knowledgeable in areas of the supply of drugs have expressed shock and alarm over the reports.
Yesterday, the New GPC did not mention the high prices it is selling government and rather attacked Kaieteur News for publishing “many malicious and vindictive media publications” within the past month against them in relation to the procurement of pharmaceutical and medical supplies by GPHC.
“New GPC Inc. calls on the Auditor General’s office to carry out a Value for Money Audit to review the prequalification process that was conducted in 2010 beginning with the advertisement for Expression of Interest, to the evaluation and subsequent approval of submissions for prequalification to supply pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to GPHC,” the company said in its statement.
The company said it is calling on the Auditor General to carry out the audit to determine if GPHC is receiving value for money based on the criteria and other established benchmarks as set out in the prequalification process, “to set the record straight and let the general public be aware of the facts.”
The company again threatened legal action.
The same New GPC, owned by Dr. Ranjisinghi Ramroop, former President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo’s best friend, was again at the centre of the supply of other high-priced drugs. Dr. Ramroop also owns Guyana Times, TVG 28, Queens Atlantic Investment Inc. (QAII), Atlantic Pharmaceuticals and several other companies.
The New GPC had attempted to defend the high prices of the pharmaceutical it is selling to the government by claiming in the Guyana Times, one of its arms, that most of the other drugs on the local market are fake. It provided no evidence to back this claim. Pharmacists have argued that manufacturers of fake drugs would not waste time on low cost drugs as the margin of profit versus the investment would be too prohibitive.
