Medicine importers pleased about acceptable charges

By Julian Manduca
The official public announcement of the long awaited charges for registering medicines is expected in the coming days, but already many in the trade are aware of the fees that will be levied.
EU membership means upwards of 6,000 medicines currently imported will have to be registered anew.
The registration fees will not be paid for by the importers, but buy their suppliers, generally the manufacturers of the medicines, but there was fear that should the fees be too high, the importation of some medicines would be discontinued.
Importers have now learned that for medicines currently imported into Malta the registration fee will be Lm50 and for any new products produced with the EU, Lm230. The fee for medicines outside Malta remains uncertain, although one importer believes it will run into several thousand liri.
The importers told The Malta Financial and Business Times that the registration fees were acceptable, although they added: "besides the registration fees, there will be charges for any changes in packaging."
A decision on the registration fees was promised one year ago, and had led to speculation that the prices of some medicines might increase substantially, or that some medicines would be discontinued.