Pills that cost eight times less abroad

In recent months Chris Said boasted of further reductions in the price of a relatively few medicines. Among the medicines mentioned were the cholesterol-lowering pills Zocor 20 mg. The new, reduced price in Malta for a packet of 28 Zocor 20 mg pills is €24.74.

To prove once again how Maltese and Gozitan consumers are being taken for a very costly ride on the question of medicine prices, I have a receipt of a box of Zocor 20 mg pills bought from a pharmacy in Istanbul, Turkey, by my partner on September 5.

When my partner asked for the price, the person behind the counter told her “five Turkish liri”. Since she had no Turkish money she asked for the price in euro.

The reply was “€3”! To be sure she had heard correctly, she asked for the price once again. Once again the reply was: “€3”. In fact the official rate of exchange is €1 to around 1.97 Turkish liri.

What this means is that a person who needs these pills and buys them from Istanbul would in one year spend €39 for 13 packets of 28 pills each. If that person happens to live in Malta instead, for the same number of packets his expense will amount to €312 – eight times more in Malta than in Istanbul! If this is not “daylight robbery” what is?

Can the minister or parliamentary secretary responsible for consumer affairs and the importer of Zocor pills, please explain why there is this enormous difference? Has this anything to do with Malta’s membership of the EU?