The Malta Chamber of Pharmacists is insisting the Medicines Authority should not form part of the proposed Malta Competition and Consumers Affairs Authority.

Reacting to comments by Labour MPs Silvio Parnis and Anthony Zammit in Parliament last week, it said such a move would be “regressive”.

The Medicines Authority, the chamber said, was not only concerned with medicines’ registration but also worked to ensure their quality, efficacy and safety, which was a significant feat in itself “requiring of its very nature full autonomy”.

It said the proposal to make it a part of the competition and consumer affairs authority would be going in the opposite direction of the EU, which updated its commissioners’ portfolios to shift medicinal products from under DG Enterprise to DG Health.

It insisted the 2003 Medicines Act provided for the establishment of an autonomous authority to regulate medicinal products and pharmaceutical activities on the premise that medicines are not ordinary items of comm-erce and pharmaceutical activities included the practices of health care professionals.