PUTRAJAYA, May 2 — Allegations that enforcement officers from the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDN) had threatened clinics for failing to comply with the mandatory drug price display directive are false.
The KPDN’s enforcement director-general Datuk Azman Adam told reporters here today that the officers involved were conducting routine inspections as part of the ministry’s daily operations.
“It was purely coincidental that our team was on duty in that area yesterday,” he said in a joint news conference with the Health Ministry to address allegations and criticism about the mandatory drug price display policy, which came into force yesterday.
He said KPDN does not only oversee the implementation of the price labelling directive for drugs.
“We also had ongoing operations such as Ops Gasak involving cooking gas, and inspections related to the government’s new initiative on chicken eggs,” he said.
He said that the officers visited the clinic only to ask if the practitioners were aware of the new directive, and emphasised that no summons was issued.
“Our officers visited the clinic simply to ask whether they were aware of the new directive. No notice, or summons was issued. This was part of our routine duty.
“There is no documentation or evidence of any action being taken against the clinic. Any official warnings or reports from the field would have been submitted to our headquarters, but none were recorded in this case,” he said.
Yesterday, the Federation of Private Medical Practitioners’ Associations Malaysia (FPMPAM) alleged that KPDN enforcement officers visited clinics and threatened to issue summonses for failing to display medicine prices.
FPMPAM president Dr Shanmuganathan TV Ganeson cited a Facebook post and claimed the KPDN officers issued three-day ultimatums to the clinics they visited, warning them to comply or face legal summonses.
The mandatory drug price display ruling came into force on May 1, 2025.
However, the Health Ministry announced today that no summons or punitive action will be taken just yet, pending a three-month grace period to focus on public education and advocacy.
