Malta failed to negotiate safeguards in directive that will raise medicine prices, Peter Agius warns

Nationalist Party European election candidate Peter Agius has blasted the government for failing to secure safeguards when voting in favour of a directive that risks raising medicine prices.

Agius said the Maltese government voted in favour of the Waste Water Treatment Directive despite Energy Minister Miriam Dalli pledging last year to protect consumers during negotiations.

The directive establishes that pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies will need to pay 80% of the cost of waste water treatment in member states in line with the polluters pay principle. This additional cost is expected to lead to significant price hikes for medicines, according to the Association of Pharmaceutical Producers and Medicines for Europe, a representative body of generic medicines producers.

The vote on the directive was taken on Friday in the Council of Ministers.

“You can’t keep treating people like fools on what you do in Europe,” Agius said in a Facebook message directed at the government. “In Malta, they say they will protect Maltese consumers from higher medicine prices, then they vote for the Directive which will do the exact opposite in Brussels.”

Agius, formerly head of Europe House in Malta, the European Parliament’s representative office, said the new directive will have a “treble impact” on Maltese patients.

“Maltese consumers already pay higher prices for medicines when compared to European counterparts and are also less likely to have access to innovative medicines when compared to mainland Europe,” he said.

Quoting data from the European Federation of Pharmaceuticals Industries, he said Malta is last on the list when it comes to the number of medicines covered by public health insurance as well as for the availability of medicines.

He added that while 45% of medicines would be covered for free in Europe, in Malta that percentage drops to just 6%.

“Malta’s situation points to a clear national imperative to take all measures to protect the Maltese consumer from additional price increases on medicines,” Agius said, adding he cannot understand the logic of government’s actions in Brussels.