I have noticed that Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi is still interested in the reduction of medicine prices about which we used to hear from time to time.

I had often written about this subject, mainly to point out the fact that some of the medicines that had their price reduced ‘voluntarily’ as per an agreed system based on the ‘average price’ found in a number of EU states, still cost double, treble and even more than the price in other EU member states like Spain, Portugal, Italy etc.

I have just had another personal experience of the scandalous medicine prices here. On May 16, I was in Vienna. I went into a pharmacy in Schwedenplatz – Schweden Apotheke - and enquired about the eye drops Timolol 5ml. I was informed that they cost €3.90, so I bought 2 5ml bottles because in Malta a similar bottle costs €6.90!

Now, please note that this was in the centre of Vienna, one of the costliest cities in Europe.

How can the system being used be justified if we have among the highest medicine prices in the whole of Europe, if not the world?

I had also noticed how the system being used can be abused when reading the reply a former Nationalist minister had given to a parliamentary question tabled by Anthony Agius Decelis. The minister had replied that no statistics are held about medicines which have their prices increased. So, I assume that a medicine importer can agree to cut the price of a particular medicine and then raise that of another to make up.

How right was John Bundy when he had written the lyrics of the song Pajjiż tal-Mickey Mouse (Mickey Mouse country).