Price reductions on 14 medicines announced

Civil affairs minster Helena Dalli announced that 14 medicines would see a price reduction of between 5% and 26% earlier today. 

"These reductions were all possible thanks to the work of the intelligence unit within the medical authority, which not only brought about price reduction but even increased the supply and choice of medicines," she said.

Dalli also said that the authority had seen a record number of applications for the registration of medicines in Malta in 2014, with a total of 650 applications. This brought the number of registered medicines up to 4839 in the country.

"Thanks to added dialogue with the EU medicines authority, we have managed to strengthen parallel distribution and EU-registered products, which will ensure cheaper products for consumers."

Dalli also explained that Malta is now among the top five EU countries for centralised procedures, a process whereby medications authorised in Malta are recognised around all the EU.

"All the income generated from this process will go into aiding and strengthening the pharmaceutical and medical industry to become more efficient and competitive," Dalli added.

Prof Anthony Serracino Inglot, chairman of the Medicines Authority, explained that Malta had also engaged in increasing numbers of third-country inspections and that following the developments, Malta was looking forward to introducing an even higher level of education and training.

"To that end students and pharmacists are being encouraged to pursue doctorates through offers of traineeships with the authority itself."

Serracino Inglot stressed that investing in training was a constant process and that the aim of the authority was to make Malta an internationally recognised centre for medicine registration and expertise.