Last year medicines worth about 90m euros were imported

During the pandemic year, there has been increased importation of pharmaceutical drugs and disinfectant products in Kosovo. About 90m euros has been the value of importing medicine during 2020.

Importing these products has marked increases compared to 2019, and import growth has also been available for disinfecting products.

The year 2020, also known as the Inferno, has increased drug consumption while there have been many openings of new pharmaceutical drugs.

The main reason for this growth is related to the situation created by COVIDD-19, where the mass spread of the virus since March of last year, and following, has encouraged the use of more drugs.

Trade and Industry Ministry Information Office, in an answer to The KP shows how many drugs have opened since the beginning of the spread of pandemic in Kosovo. Yet, in the same answer, despite interest, there is no indication of how many pharmaceutical companies have opened up during this period.

57 pharmaceutical drugs have been opened since March 2020 so far. At the same time, five pharmaceutical drugstores have been extinguished, said the answer.

The KP has also sent questions to the Kosovo Agency for Products and Medicines. The same for several weeks, they haven't returned.

Kosovo Customs spokesman Adriatic Stavileci says that during 2020 there has been an increase in the import of these medical products, but not even at the beginning of the pandemic.

“We have achieved, it has been imported from Kosovo about 1.1m euros worth of disinfectant products. We have had about 3m euros of medical gloves, and masks have also exceeded over 3m euros worth of annual import. Which has not been compared to the past years. There are normally imports in the past few years, but they haven't been in that amount of”, Stavileci says.

Import growth has also been available for other pharmaceutical products, in particular drugs. Stavileci shows that during 2020, there has been an increase of 16m euros compared to the previous year.

Kosovo Customs spokesman Adriatic Stavileci says the import trend of these products has continued even this year, but emphasises that there has been an easy reduction in import of disinfectors, masks and gloves.

The highest demand for consumption has been for antibiotics and vitamins. In addition to vitamin C, there is a high demand for vitamin D recommended for individuals infected with Covid-19.