The Cebu City Emergency Operations Center was alarmed today on reports that sellers are jacking-up prices of the life-saving medicines for COVID-19.
Cebu City Councilor and Cebu City EOC chief implementer Joel Garganera said that they also asked law enforcement agencies like the National Bureau of Investigation and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group to help them identify sellers that are taking advantage of the situation.
Garganera said that it has come to their observation that the prices of COVID-19 medicines such as Favipiravir, Remdesivir, Tocolizumab have significantly increased.
Garganera said with the number of cases that they have in the city, the demand for these medicines also increases.
In addition, he said, there is also an issue about hoarding, which aggravates the supply and distribution of these medicines.
“We see that is a need to regulate the sale and price of these medications so as to provide our COVID-19 patients a fighting chance for survival,” Garganera said.
In view of this, the Cebu City EOC has seek assistance to the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Health and Food and Drugs Administration to help formulate the price and supply regulation of these medicines.