The decision on the unified prices of drugs causes dissatisfaction, Bytyqi: Pharmacists will suffer huge losses

The decision of the Minister of Health, Arben Vitia, on the unified prices of drugs has caused great dissatisfaction among pharmacists. 

The President of the Chamber of Pharmacists of Kosovo, Kadri Bytyqi, has stated that precisely because of the decision of the Ministry of Health, they held an extraordinary meeting and decided to make a questionnaire in pharmacies.

Bytyqi expressed his concern that with the decision of the Ministry of Health, pharmacists will suffer great economic losses.

"We have held an extraordinary meeting of the Governing Council, and we have decided to make a questionnaire to the pharmacies, because this amount affects and damages us, that is, the pharmacists who operate in their pharmacies every day, point number 6 of the decision. Where it is said that they are obliged to set the prices, while they have large quantities of drugs in stock, and will cause great economic losses to people who have worked with sweat and hard work for years. For us, point number 6 of the decision is problematic", he emphasized for Telegraf.

Also, he said that they will follow all legal avenues, and will protect the rights of pharmacists, who work from 12 to 13 hours a day.

"We have prepared the questionnaire, and they will answer, then all the legal and administrative avenues available to us, for the protection of our colleagues, this is the purpose of our establishment
protection of pharmacists' rights. We are interested in the issue of our pharmacists, where they work from 12-13 hours, where they serve hundreds, thousands of citizens during the day", he added further.

Read too Vitia signs the list for unified drug prices - reductions for over 2,900 medicinal products

Regarding this decision of the Ministry of Health, Ismail Shurdhaj, chairman of the Association of Distributors of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Products of Kosovo, stated a few days ago.

Shurdhaj, in a statement for Telegraph, said that they have always been in favor of the unification of prices in pharmacies, but that in this case the MOH has set the price margin.

"From the beginning, we have been in favor of adjusting prices because it is a common demand of pharmacists for the unification of prices in pharmacies. Since Kosovo is the only country without health insurance, this has put us in a difficulty, since there is no real and easy mechanism to unify the prices. In reality, the Ministry of Health has set a price margin, an extremely low margin of 7.5 percent, at a time when most pharmaceutical distributors spend 12 to 20% on TAK. These have expenses for survival, without counting the profit margin", he emphasized.

Read too The decision of the Ministry of Health on unified drug prices, Shurdhaj: Kosovo will have problems supplying pharmaceutical products

Otherwise, Minister Vitia has stated that with the signing of the final list, the implementation of the Law on the Unified Prices of Medicines is opened.

"For the first time, drugs will be at the same prices everywhere and lower than now. In some of the drugs, the prices have been reduced by 5 to 10 times. There is a significant decrease in over 2900 medicinal products", the minister announced. /telegraph/