The price of basic drugs has jumped by more than 50% after drug shortages occurred in Mon State as a result of difficulties importing medicines, the pharmaceutical entrepreneurs told Than Lwin Times.

With the decline in the value of the Myanmar currency against the dollar, the drug price continues to rise due to junta’s import license restrictions and the difficulties in importing medicine.

Therefore, the price of medicine has surged by 50 % per item, one pharmacist said.

He added, "Drug prices have gone up by half. Some companies have run out of certain kinds of drugs. Businesses may be closed due to inconvenience in importing medicine."

Some drugs, such as those for high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease, are in short supply on the local medicine market as a result of the difficulties in importing medicine.

In addition, drug companies only sell medicine with quotas, so people who are in dire need of medicine pay exorbitant prices to buy them.

In Mon State, medicines and related products are mainly imported from Thailand, China, and India, and during the year and a half of the military coup, the state has witnessed frequent shortages of medicine.