Bars in Kosovo 10m euros more expensive than in other countries, due to lack of Law

Kosovo has no law defining the prices of medicines. From the Oda of Kosovo Pharmacists have said drugs in the country sell for 10m euros a year more expensive than in countries in the region.

Meanwhile, for two decades, there is no unified price of drugs in Kosovo. In effect, there was an administrative regulation that did not preempt price unification.

Kosovo citizens pay about 10m euros a year for drugs more expensive than citizens of the region. That's what they say from Oda the Pharmacists. This is because there is no unification of the price of drugs in the country.

The chairman of the Kosovo Pharmacists' Oda, Arian Jakupi, in a conversation for Radio Kosovo, said they have called on the Ministry of Health to functional and implement the issue of the price adjustment of medicines, until he added he has encountered consensus and are expecting positive moves by the current health minister.

Unfortunately, price payments still continue to be made without any regulations and without the guidance for unified drug prices. The concern of all pharmacists who have shown up at the pharmacists' watch is precisely because of not applying the approved instruction on drug prices, Jakupi said.

He says they have received promises that will soon start working on a working group that will prepare the law for the price of medicines in Kosovo. Meanwhile, it adds how much time this issue will take, it is still unknown.

In Kosovo there are 1,200 licensed pharmacists and 650 drugstores. Currently, 10 percent of licensed pharmacists exercise their activity in public institutions, while the rest in private institutions.

While Kosovo drug prices larmamania, according to pharmacists, has influenced citizens not to seek quality in the service of drug purchase, but cheaper prices.

Shkumbin Jusuf, a pharmacist, said this mess hurts pharmacist professionalism. The latter, he says, are unable to exercise the profession directly for the patient, as long as the primary role is to play the price of the medicine.

In the absence of price unification arrangement, the price of medicines in Kosovo is the most expensive. And that's a big barrier and a big problem for the pharmacist who exercises the profession every day, Yusuf says.

The World Health Organization has been the one that has provided assistance in policy development in terms of guidelines that unify the price of drugs in order to reduce patients' spending on drugs.