“We are front liners, we don’t want to be seen as price hikers,” Yan Grima, a Maltese pharmacist, told Lovin Malta. “We are lucky enough that our business is still able to continue.”

Grima dismissed any fears that Maltese companies might raise prices by ridiculous amounts overnight.

“You can rest assured that no medicine will go up by €22 – there has to be a huge justification for a price hike like that,” he continued. 

Saying that pharmacies work in a “controlled market”, he noted that with global medicine manufacturers closed due to the COVID-19 crisis, there might be an increase in price in some items, but he doubted that it would be in medicine locally.

Grima stressed that Maltese pharmacists were working around the clock to source materials to keep Maltese consumers supplied, oftentimes spending long hours trying to find suppliers.

As for local reports over possible price hikes, he believes they were “mistaken”, either having been given the wrong packet, or possibly due to a printing or billing error.

“There are no price hikes in medicine in Malta.”

As part of his role within the Chamber of SMEs, Mario Debono investigates claims into price hikes in medicines in Malta – and he found no evidence of anything untoward in recent reports of sudden price hikes in paracetamol and other medicines.

And he had strong words for those who he felt maliciously spread lies about price hikes in the pharmaceutical industry.

“Pharmacists, who are front liners, and the wholesalers who supply them, are overworked and under lots of stress during this crisis, and do not need to be worried by people seeking false popularity by publishing what is surely fake news on Facebook, be they be an attention-seeking housewife or a politician,” Debono said.

“Pharmacists and pharmacy-owners should be taken care of because they are the front liners in the community.”

Like importers in any industry, pharmaceutical importers are currently facing a sudden price hike in the cost of air and ship freight, essential to bringing much-needed medicine to Malta, much of which is produced in Asia.

“Shipping is an issue. The slowdown in global trade has meant that less cargo space is available on ships doing the China-India-EU route. Air cargo rates have gone through the roof, with Emirates now charging €15 per kilo above the usual rate of €1 – 3 per kilo,” he pointed out.

He also pointed out the difficulties Maltese importers are facing – importers are now being asked to prepay all orders, with some prepaying for months… only to be told by the supplier at the last second that a competitor had outbid them and bought their supplies.

Other Maltese importers have had their items confiscated at international borders – including certain medicines.

With freight space and availability becoming limited, and Malta so heavily reliant on imports, Debono expects to the price of essential goods like food as well as other items to go up within three months.

However, once COVID-19 goes away, Malta will see prices will drop again, Debono believes.

Charmaine Gauci, the Superintendent of Public Health, said that Malta’s Health Authorities were “looking at the medicines whose prices are increasing”.

“The reason behind the increase is that COVID-19 has affected countries which manufacture medicine. This means availability is dropping,” she told Lovin Malta.

However, she noted that “work is happening” and that the MCAA was looking into any and all cases.

“The government is doing all it can to ensure that the most essential medicines reach its patients – and that prices of medicines remain stable.”

Have you been affected by this story? Contact us at [email protected] to speak confidentially.