PHARMACEUTICAL companies have called on the government to make public a study on medicine prices, following claims the document showed Cypriot medicine buyers were being ripped off.
The London School of Economics study, commissioned last year by former Health Minister Frixos Savvides, also proposed that prices should be based on the average retail price of the same medicines in 10 other European countries.
Sotos Iacovides, President of the Association for Cyprus Pharmaceutical Companies, said it was time the government came clean on the study: “We requested that the government show us the study but they have refused. We need transparency.”
A report in Tuesday’s Politis newspaper claimed LSE experts found retail prices of certain medicines were 159 per cent higher in Cyprus than the EU average. The paper also said the price of one particular medicine was 300 per cent higher in Cyprus than in Europe.
But Iacovides warned that the newspaper article could be misleading, as it did not give information about all of the 2,000 medicines included in the study.
“I am not challenging the study, but we need the real picture,” he said. “We need all the facts, not just one or two per cent of the story.”
Nicos Nourris of the Pharmacy Association agreed: “Perhaps the journalist selectively chose the prices.”
“We asked the government to show us the study in September but we are still waiting,” he added.
No one at the Health Ministry was available for comment yesterday.
But some consumers were unhappy at the government’s silence.
“I paid 1.5 euros for a packet of 500mg Ponstan tablets in Greece this summer but exactly the same packet cost me £4 from a chemist in Cyprus,” complained one woman.
“I think it’s high time some light was shed on the state of medicine prices here.”
Iacovides said any pricing comparisons should distinguish between medicines bought privately and those made available to the public via different national health systems.
“We need to have a clear list of product names and their respective prices on the private market and on the national health systems to compare.”
Currently, the government purchases 55 per cent of pharmaceuticals in Cyprus. The remainder are bought privately.
