The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention has launched a new initiative to bring down the prices of 762 medicines by up to 63 per cent by early September.

Dr Amin Hussein Al Amiri, assistant undersecretary of the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention for Public Health Policy and Licensing Sector, and vice chairman of drugs pricing and registration committee, told the media that the initiative, which was launched in partnership with 39 pharmaceuticals companies.

Prices of 657 products will go down by early September while price reductions for 105 products will take effect by January 2017, a Wam report said.

The products classes and counts cover cardiovascular diseases (135), central nervous (115), infections (84), respiratory (72), endocrine (59), obstetrics, gynaecology and urinary-tract disorders (35), skin (35), and gastrointestinal (32).

The price reductions will range between 2 and 63 percent. This is the seventh initiative to reduce prices of medicines. Since the first initiative was launch in July 2011, prices of 8,725 pharmaceutical products have been cut, said Dr Al Amiri.