KUALA LUMPUR, July 30 — Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad announced today an extension of the grace period for enforcement of medicine price display until a court decision on a judicial review bid.
CodeBlue broke the story yesterday on the judicial review application by eight applicants, comprising seven associations representing medical and dental practitioners, as well as an individual Sabah-based general practitioner (GP), to quash the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering (Price Marking for Drug) Order 2025 under the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011 (Act 723).
“We will continue what is termed as ‘educational enforcement’ to avoid a lacuna until the court decides on the judicial review,” Dzulkefly told a press conference after launching the National Health Technology Assessment (NHTA) Conference 2025 in Putrajaya today, when asked for comment on the judicial review.
CodeBlue obtained an audio recording of his press conference.
Although the drug price display mandate – which came into force on May 1 and was due to end on July 31 – is legally under the purview of the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry (KPDN), the price transparency policy came from the Ministry of Health (MOH).
The judicial review application was filed in the High Court here last Thursday by the Association of Private Practitioners, Sabah (APPS), the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA), the Malaysian Association for the Advancement of Functional and Interdisciplinary Medicine (Maafim), the Organisation of Malaysian Muslim Doctors (Perdim), the Federation of Private Medical Practitioners Associations Malaysia (FPMPAM), the Malaysian Private Dental Practitioners’ Association (MPDPA), the Society of Private Medical Practitioners Sarawak (SPMPS), and Dr Saifulbahri Ahmad, a medical practitioner who operates a GP clinic in Lahad Datu, Sabah.
Besides asking the court to nullify the drug price display mandate – which requires private health care facilities and community pharmacies to display retail medicine prices – the eight applicants also sought a court order to stay enforcement, pending the full disposal of their judicial review application.
Dzulkefly’s remarks today indicate that the government has voluntarily agreed to suspend enforcement of the price display rule without waiting for a court order.
The crux of applicants’ main argument, according to their statement of claim, is that the drug price display order under Act 723 in KPDN’s jurisdiction interferes with the right of medical doctors and dentists to “sell, supply or administer” poisons to their patients under the Poisons Act 1952.
They claimed that the administration of medical or dental treatment by practitioners was not the sale of goods, nor the supply of services, within the context of Act 723. Charges for medical treatment, including the dispensing of drugs, cannot be considered “prices of drugs”, but are “part of the fees of professional services” that are already regulated under various other laws specific to the medical and dental professions.
