Medicine importers, distributors reject cartel accusations

The healthcare trade section of the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise is expected to meet Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi at the beginning of June to discuss the lack of available medicines.

At a press conference yesterday morning, section chairman Joanna Cremona said that despite claims by the government that medicine prices were spiking due to cartels, it was the rigid regulations regime that had brought the sector to its knees.

"We are being accused of creating cartels in order to increase consumer prices, however it is important for all of you to know that these cartels exist simply in the imagination of those making such statements," Ms Cremona said.

As a result of Malta's accession to the European Union, the country has had to adopt a medicines registration system. "Complicated" and "costly" procedures that come in play at the beginning of next year were set to increase prices and were already leading to a situation where essential medicines have been withdrawn from the market.

"Come January 1, 2007, every importer and distributor must have adequate premises with good manufacturing practices (GMP) certification simply to affix a label on each and every medicinal preparation placed on the local market with a specific Malta Marketing Authorisation number (MA) for each product," Ms Cremona said. The new regulations contemplate a fees regime running into thousands of liri which importers and distributors have to pay for medicines to be allowed into the country.

Besides the exorbitant fees, another obstacle is that instructions in both Maltese and English must appear on the outer package and insert of each medicine.

The chamber said that while incurring costs to translate into Maltese, medicines directed at a tiny market like Malta, it was difficult to find the adequate terminology in Maltese.

Ms Cremona said a delegation from the chamber was on a fact-finding mission in Brussels last week. "The results of our mission all point to one direction, and that is practicality," she said.

The health authorities owed importers about Lm12 million, adding that this was having a detrimental effect on the importers.

"The responsibility for this state of affairs lies with those who were forewarned about what the results would be unless we changed tack," Reggie Fava, a former president of the Chamber of Commerce, said.

He added that in the run-up to EU accession he had warned the government that Malta would find itself in this situation unless a practical way of registering medicines was established.

Asked for his views on the government's warning that it would issue price orders, Mr Fava said the answer could be found in recent history: "Just look up what the Nationalist Party, which is now in government, used to say when the former Socialist government imposed general price orders. At that time, price orders were followed by a wage freeze," Mr Fava said.

The example of Luxembourg as a small EU state which allows in medicine products that have been certified in neighbouring France has often been mentioned as a possible solution for Malta.

Commenting when asked whether the Luxembourg model could be applied to Malta, Mr Fava said: "I don't believe that what others have managed to do cannot be done by Malta".