Row Continues Over Soaring Mexican Prices

Constantly soaring prices of medicines in Mexico since the December 20, 1994, peso devaluation have been the subject of continuous wrangling, with no end in sight.

There are differences of opinion as to the extent of drug price increases, reports the Marketletter's local correspondent, from a low of 40% to more accurate level of 100% and as much as 200%, with pharmacists, distributors and the government arguing about the upward trend, and the public complaining bitterly about the jump in prices, often coming from one week to the next.

No one at the Ministry of Commerce, the official price regulating body, wanted to comment on the situation, beyond noting that prices are rising for everything due to the devaluation.