Parliamentary Secretary Chris Said said today that his secretariat was considering new ways to bring down the cost of medicines in Malta.

He said that following agreements reached earlier this year, the local price of several medicines had been reduced.

Government inspectors had gone around all pharmacies to check that prices of new stock were reduced once the old stock was sold.

He said further talks would be held to ensure that local prices matched the average prices in Europe. Should current methods not work, other methods would have to be considered.

Dr Said said the secretariat was also considering systems based on the regressive profit margin instead of the fixed profit margin.

It would also encourage the use of generic medicines which were suitable alternatives to original ones, but were cheaper.