The smuggled bar, with the expired and dangerous deadline

Drug smuggling continues to remain one of many problems in the pharmaceutical market in Kosovo.

Officials in Kosovo Customs say drugs as products can be easily smuggled, because their amount is not large, but the value is high enough.

The official Adriatic Stavileci in Kosovo Customs told Radio Free Europe that during 2017, more than 15 thousand boxes of junk-free drugs were seized. According to him, smuggled drugs come mainly from Serbia.

“As far as drug smuggling is concerned, Kosovo Customs normally runs controls at both border points and within the country. Just last year we've had over 50 cases when we've encountered attempted drug smuggling and all these cases have been in drugs, inside camouflaged warehouses, but also during the passage of the” border.

So it's a disturbing phenomenon, but it's not at large. These drugs are usually from Serbia, but there are also other countries mainly used for rare and high-value diseases”, Stavileci said.

On Monday, Kosovo Police have found quantities of drugs suspected of smuggling goods with banners of Serbia and expired deadlines. According to the initial assessment, the value of seized drugs has been around 20,000 euros.

That is what police officials have said, according to which a suspected person was arrested in this operation and after his interview, at the order of the prosecutor of the case by the competent prosecution, the same has been released in regular procedure.

In the meantime, pharmacists say the reason for drug smuggling is due to the fact that the prices of drugs in Kosovo are 100 percent more expensive than in the region.

Visar Ademi, a pharmacist, told Radio Free Europe that relevant institutions are not doing enough to regulate drug prices, so smuggling has been available for years.

I think one of the reasons for drug smuggling is the failure of prices in Kosovo. Kosovo has the highest drug prices in the region”.

The region has arranged this matter. The lack of price unification has caused drug prices to be 100 percent more expensive in Kosovo than in Serbia, for example. So even most of the smuggled drugs come from Serbia”, Ademi said.

Shaban Osmanaj, task manager of the pharmaceutical Inspectorate at the Ministry of Health, said there are several reasons why medicines still continue to be smuggled into Kosovo.

“One of the factors is the high price of drugs, since there is no price unification and administrative instruction procedure for price unification”.

The remaining “can also be the description of drugs that are not registered in Kosovo, and doctors describe those drugs, and citizens are uncontrolled inside Kosovo”, Osmanaj says.

However, Kosovo does not have a legislation that would regulate the prices of medicines in the country, and this is used by various companies, but also by citizens themselves, to illegally introduce drugs in Kosovo. / REL