Pool purchasing to cut Asean’s medicine costs, strengthen supply, says expert

Pooling medicine purchases across Asean could lower costs and strengthen Malaysia’s resilience against supply disruptions, a pharmacy expert said.

Malaysian Pharmacists Society (MPS) president Amrahi Buang said that the strategy could be especially beneficial for high-cost medicines and orphan drugs for rare diseases, since small patient populations tend to limit the bargaining power of individual countries.

“Consolidating demand across Asean member states creates larger order volumes, allowing countries to negotiate steeper discounts from pharmaceutical manufacturers,” he told FMT.

He said combining the demand for rare-disease treatments could turn small national markets into more commercially attractive regional contracts, improving the prospects of securing affordable supplies.

Amrahi was commenting on plans outlined by health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad for Malaysia to co-lead a regional medicine procurement framework with the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Work on the framework and financing mechanism is scheduled for 2027–2028, with a pilot targeted by 2030.

Amrahi said the pooled procurement of 82 medicines for healthcare facilities run by the health, defence and higher education ministries helped the country achieve an estimated RM179.6 million, or 17.7% in savings.

The health ministry study, which compared contracts for 2018–2020 and 2020–2022, found that switching from original-brand medicines to generics had also contributed to the savings.

“Malaysia’s domestic success strongly indicates that expanding to a regional Asean model could yield even greater benefits, but it requires navigating different pricing dynamics,” said Amrahi.

He said a larger purchasing pool could provide additional leverage when negotiating for patented and rare-disease medicines without generic alternatives.

Beyond prices, Amrahi said regional cooperation could support coordinated stockpiling and access to a wider network of manufacturers, helping countries withstand disruptions and reduce dependence on individual suppliers.

However, he said regional savings would vary according to the medicines purchased, countries’ economic capacities and differences in regulatory requirements.

For the mechanism to work, he said participating countries would need reliable demand forecasts, common product specifications, transparent pricing and guaranteed purchase volumes.

The procurement initiative forms part of the Asean drug security and self-reliance action plan under the Asean Strategic Health Agenda 2026–2030, launched at the 17th Asean Health Ministers Meeting in Kuala Lumpur in September.

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