Price hikes have also affected the pharmaceutical sector

To raise prices of essential food products and other products, immune prices have not been the price of pharmaceutical products, but compared with the high levels of other products, prices of drugs have not marked any significant increases. That's what they say in the Kosovo Pharmacists' Oda, where, according to them, small changes in prices are mostly noted in medicines needed for chronic treatment.

The prices of pharmaceutical products have changes because of the inflation that Kosovo faces, but it is also said by the Association for the Protection of Patients' Rights and members of the Parliamentary Commission for Health and Social Goodness. But in addition to this concern, they complain that the list of essential drugs is not fulfilled, and this is adding to the patient's pocket.

And although they have not wanted to speak to the camera, for Kosova Prees, the small increase in pharmaceutical products has even declared owners of several drugstores in the capital.

The deputy head of the Kosovo Pharmacists' Oda, Dardane Mehaj, said that compared to the global price-growing trend, there is a price hike, but no big one.

She says of Kosova priss, that this small increase has mainly affected drug prices for diabetes, hypertension and other chronic diseases. But vitamins and other therapies for the most serious disease have not changed.

In comparison to the global trend of price hikes in almost all of the products we're touching, drugs have affected an increase, but it might be stressed that it's not a big increase, not all of it. It depends on the producers because it's a chain until it comes to our drugs, but there's been no drastic change compared to the price of food items... ... it's probably affected the ones that are more chronic, emphasising this policy of price-givings from the majority of the retail distributors here is the chain where prices rise directly impacting... Mostly not in those vitamins and products that are not daily”, she pointed out.

Chairman of the Association for Patients' Rights in Kosovo (PRAK) Besim Kodra points out that complaints about price hikes by patients have declined, but he believes price hikes have affected the pharmaceutical sector as well.

According to him, it continues to be disturbing not to meet drugs from the essential list, as this becomes a burden to the citizen himself.

If there is an increase in the price of energy and derivatives everything has to go up, including drugs. I see here a bigger problem than this is completing the drugs of the essential list if the state were to meet the list of essential drugs it owes and signed this, we consider there would be much less for the patient from pocket to pay for drugs. The fact that this isn't happening twice is damaging to the patient someone who is misusing his taxes and once forcing the drugs he paid on his own taxes... We haven't had such complaints because patients don't always know how much a bar costs earlier and how much it costs now except those who have chronic diseases and have to buy over and over again we haven't had such complaints, but I believe there will be expensive. But what I wish for the state to complete the essential list that these patients might not need to buy drugs from your own geox1>, Kodra said.

And the member of the Parliamentary Commission for Health, Bekim Haxhiu, says that even pharmaceutical products have not been immune to increasing prices of other products that the citizen is facing. But he also points out that there has not been an enormous increase in prices compared with other products.