Finance Minister Edward Scicluna, while speaking at a pre-Budget consultation meeting, mentioned the “scandalous cost of medicines for the government which was double the real value”.

I have been writing about the scandalous prices of medicines in Malta for a number of years now. I have always described such prices as ‘daylight robbery’.

Scicluna has just confirmed this. The latest in a long series of scandalous prices of medicines and other ancillary products used in the health sector is the price of blood glu­cose test strips and lancets used by thousand of Maltese citizens who are diabetics and who may need daily checks of their blood glucose levels.

Blood glucose test strips purchased in Malta cost €23.90 for a box of 50 (€95.60 for 200). Two hundred strips bought in the UK cost £28.48, or €35.88. In Malta, a box of 200 lancets costs €28.99, while in the UK 200 lancets cost £10.16, or €12.70.

How much longer are the government, consumers and patients going to be charged such high prices by importers of medicines?

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