PSYCHIATRIST Yiangos Mikellides yesterday accused local pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies of being “faceless, profit-making organisations” no longer concerned with peoples’ medical welfare.
Mikellides told the Cyprus Mail that a “cartel of nine or 10” pharmaceutical companies “ran the show”, despite efforts to liberalise the market, and that the profit cut they added to prices was staggering.
But both the Cyprus Association of Pharmaceutical Companies and the Pancyprian Pharmacy Association hit back, saying Mikellides’ allegations were as uncalled for as they were incorrect.
Mikellides said medicine prices were set by the government in such a way that pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies made a 38 per cent profit on drugs. In other words, he said, consumers were paying nearly 70 per cent over and above the factory cost of imported drugs.
“What the factory was selling for £10, is being sold for £17 on the local market,” he said – adding this was turning medicines into a luxury item when they were a vital necessity.
Mikellides claimed that although a new law had been passed last year to free the market from what had once been a monopoly, the government had also added a number of stipulations that prevented smaller sized business from joining the market due to the extortionate costs involved.
“The new procedure for selling drugs was a chance to start importing medicine from other countries at lower prices, and to force local pharmaceutical companies to be more competitive, therefore driving prices down. But instead of cutting costs, they claim that packaging, transportation costs, instruction leaflets, and personnel to handle the whole procedure are very expensive, which results in smaller importers opting out of the game.”
He claimed the “cartel” did all this under the guise of protecting the consumer, when in fact all they were interested in was profit and maintaining a monopoly.
But the President of the Cyprus Association of Pharmaceutical Companies, Sotiris Iacovides, dismissed the cartel claim out of hand, saying there were as many as 110 registered pharmaceutical companies; as for the 30 per cent profit margin above factory cost price, this had been set by the government and was deemed to be fair.
“The promotion and distribution of drugs is no small feat,” said Iacovides. “We must hire scientists to inform doctors about the new drugs on the market, and promote the medicine as best we can.”
As for stipulations on what procedures a pharmaceutical company had to go through in order to register, he said, these were set by the EU itself and were not up to the government.
“There may have been a monopoly in the past,” he admitted, “but since last May, the market has been liberalised and anyone can become involved as long as they follow EU guidelines.”
The President of the Pancyprian Pharmacy Association Nicos Nouris said calls for smaller profit margins were ridiculous, insisting Cyprus pharmacists made some of the lowest profits in Europe.
He conceded that drugs pricing was a huge topic and that, under the proposed new health scheme, prices could perhaps be reduced further.
But he insisted that though drugs may be slightly more expensive in Cyprus than in other European countries, they were only marginally so.
Both Nouris and Iacovides said that the island’s private sector was such a small market that it had no bargaining power in negotiations with large pharmaceutical factories abroad.
“You cannot compare the 50 per cent of the Cyprus population (that buys drugs privately) to the UK’s population,” Iacovides said. “The factories abroad will sell drugs to the UK at a cheaper price than they will to us.” This was not something the government or they could control, he said, despite what Mikellides claimed.
“Besides, the way the market operates now, if you can find drugs cheaper somewhere else, you have the right to do so,” Iacovides said.
He added that comparing drugs prices in Cyprus to those in Greece was not fair, because Greece had a Social Health Scheme that meant the government subsidised the cost of drugs, and also illegally froze price increases, for which it was currently before the EU courts.
“If you compare local prices to other European countries, you will find that there is hardly any difference at all, and that we strive to ensure that the paying public has the best all round deal.”
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
