Blood-pressure candesartan pills imported by the government to replace valsartan are now in stock at all pharmacies in the Pharmacy of Your Choice scheme, the government said.

It said on Thursday that all pharmacies were given a consignment that was large enough to cover the needs of every person entitled to these pills for a month.

Those who take the drug had been advised to contact their doctor after the European Medicines Agency raised the alarm over a key ingredient found to contain an impurity – a chemical that could pose a cancer risk, in certain stocks of valsartan.

They can now go to the pharmacy of their choice with their remaining valsartan pills for these to be replaced with candesartan.

Candesartan 8mg, the government said, was equivalent to valsartan 80mg while candesartan 16mg was equivalent to valsartan 160mg.

It said Malta was among a few countries in the world which was providing an alternative to valsartan pills that could have contained an impurity.

Some 27,000 patients in Malta take valsartan through the government’s Pharmacy of Your Choice scheme.