Medicine importers blame monitoring body for pricing ills

Medicine importers are in favour of a justified reduction in the prices of medicines but yesterday again aired their opposition to price control.

The Healthcare Business Section of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Enterprise said it would support the government in ensuring that people paid a fair price for medicines on the market.

Last month, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said the government was determined to forge ahead with a system to turn the voluntary mechanism of reducing medicine prices found too high into a mandatory one unless an alternative system was introduced.

He said the government would buy medicines directly if importers stopped bringing over products issued with a price order after being deemed too expensive.

Healthcare Business Section chairman Reginald Fava said that if the Price Monitoring Committee, set up to ensure fair pricing for medicines, was working properly, it would have protected the public, importers and distributors.

"The minister is fully aware as to why this committee is not working and he should see to it that existing obstacles are eliminated if the government really and truly would like to resolve the issue. It is the government's duty to explain to the public, in very clear and unequivocal terms, why the pricing committee is not functioning as it should," Mr Fava said.

However, when asked to give the reasons himself, Mr Fava refused, saying he would rather leave it to the minister.

He said that in the case of medicines it was not a question of comparing like with like. "There are many factors that determine a price on the market. Controlling an unbridled horse is one thing but controlling all horses, even those giving our people a fair deal, is another," he said.

Mr Fenech had said the authorities were also looking into the possibility of setting up reference pharmacies, which sold medicines imported by the government, as happened in other countries.

Mr Fava said reference pharmacies were objectionable because they were conducive to animosity among professionals, which should be avoided at all costs. Moreover, he said, the government was well aware that if and when a medicine was imported, it was to be made available to all pharmacies through a distribution network that was already in place and had proved its worth over the years.

He said it was through the section's work that the number of medicines available on the market returned to an acceptable level after dropping drastically when Malta joined the EU.