The European Commission is investigation the issue of medicine prices in Malta, Labour MEP John Attard Montalto said.

He said in a statement, that he asked the Competition Commissioner to investigate the issue.

Dr Attard Montalto said that the association which represented the Pharmaceutical Researched Based Industry Malta, in direct correspondence, admitted that medicine prices in Europe were cheaper than in Malta since European governments refunded consumers with part or full payment of these medicines.

He said that such a statement did not explain the exaggerated difference in price but worsened the situation for Maltese consumers.

If European governments wanted to refund part of the price of medicine back to the consumers, the difference in price offered on the island and the continent was even bigger.

Those supplying medicines had to forget the structures of how they used to import in the past and start afresh with new structures, he said.