From what we keep hearing, it’s not the pharmacies, it’s the suppliers.
Everything gets more expensive when it arrives in Cy, even clothes.
In the case of pharmacies, the supplier puts the extra price (+expenses+importing etc). Btw, if it’s not prescription drug you can find online pharmacies from greece that will ship to Cy.
Prices on the islands in Greece can also be much higher than in Attica.
Yeah.. Ι am often asked to bring meds from Greece to relatives in Cyprus
Isn’t Atrovent in GESY tho?
It’s more expensive due to GeSY
because they unfortunately can..
whether its the supliers or pharmacies themselves who knows….
what i do know is a month ago i had dry eyes, and i went to the pharmacy to buy eye drops which cost 9.5eur here in cy
then last week i was in greece, had an eye infection, and the medicinal drops cost 2.6eur…..almost 4x less than random ‘fake tears’ eye drops in cy
It’s like this for many things. Especially things less commonly needed.
It’s not the logistics cost behind this, it’s short sighted freed. You can order many things from Greece or Germany with the most expensive DHL shipping for less than you can buy in Cyprus.
Prices are set by the cartel (same guys you apply to for a license to run a pharmacy)
Lol. Europeans complaining bout price of medicine. *cries in American*
If I could take a guess…its bcs we are island. What that means? Transportation through air or sea. And they must keep them cold in special environment and meds cant be shake by wave or smth ,this kind of transportation costs A LOT.
🙂
On the positive side, everything is dirt cheap with a GESY subscription. I’d rather have it this way than like it was in Russia: cheap or expensive, if you have a prescription, you have to buy it yourself unless it’s a special case covered by some kind of government program (which was the case only *once* in my life).
This makes me so mad. I’m chronically ill and I’m on meds every day. It’s so expensive. Doesn’t help that wages in Cyprus are terrible.
That’s why no drugs left in north cyprus, the prices are incredible cheaper in occupied side
It’s the suppliers who set the prices, not the pharmacies. Cyprus is a small market so the manufacturers raise prices in order not to lose profit. It’s also an island so you have to take into consideration transportation costs as well. But the medicine you bought can be obtained through GESY, and you would only pay 1 euro, so….
Other comments here basically covet the reasons. I will just add scale. Ordering huge amounts of drugs can achieve economies of scale. Greece population 10M, Cyprus population 0.9M.
It’s the suppliers and the cost to import onto the island – not the pharmacies!! This is true of any materials not made in Cyprus itself. Same phenomenon for the Greek islands vs. mainland Greece. 🤷♂️
It’s cheaper if you don’t ask for a receipt
Cypriot business always screw us in different ways
America: that’ll be 20k
Smaller market, higher prices.
Fr tho, my local pharmacy is closed. Because apparently, they’re closed every Wednesday. What if someone is sick?
Did you try to buy car parts in Lithuania? There are 2-x times cheaper than on the island. That is the tax for island life, and I hate that.
I work in health insurance in Greece and Cyprus.
Why didn’t you get that from the GESY?
If you go to a hospital, Cyprus is cheaper than Greece but I understand that diagnostics is where they screw you
Buy from the north.
They are not screwing you. Medicines in Greece are cheaper than in other european countries.
Pharmacies in Cyprus have no saying on the pricing of medication.
Reasons why drugs are more expensive in Cyprus than Greece could be numerous.
1) The obvious, transportation costs are a lot higher. Especially for medication because they have to be transported in very specific, highly regulated way.
2) government needs the prices high tο collect more VAT
3) Higher wages in Cyprus for people that work in the pharmaceutical industry.
4)Most factories do not manufacture for Cyprus because its a very small market, instead they refer the cypriot distributors to buy from the Greek distributors. Hence basically not buying directly from the source, so inevitably higher prices.
5) Greed from the distributors.
Yeah most medicine are produced in Greece thats why. 80% of the Cyprus pharmaceutical supplies are produced in Greece. Its cheaper in Greece because there is not oversea transportation cost!
27 comments
From what we keep hearing, it’s not the pharmacies, it’s the suppliers.
Everything gets more expensive when it arrives in Cy, even clothes.
In the case of pharmacies, the supplier puts the extra price (+expenses+importing etc). Btw, if it’s not prescription drug you can find online pharmacies from greece that will ship to Cy.
Prices on the islands in Greece can also be much higher than in Attica.
Yeah.. Ι am often asked to bring meds from Greece to relatives in Cyprus
Isn’t Atrovent in GESY tho?
It’s more expensive due to GeSY
because they unfortunately can..
whether its the supliers or pharmacies themselves who knows….
what i do know is a month ago i had dry eyes, and i went to the pharmacy to buy eye drops which cost 9.5eur here in cy
then last week i was in greece, had an eye infection, and the medicinal drops cost 2.6eur…..almost 4x less than random ‘fake tears’ eye drops in cy
It’s like this for many things. Especially things less commonly needed.
It’s not the logistics cost behind this, it’s short sighted freed. You can order many things from Greece or Germany with the most expensive DHL shipping for less than you can buy in Cyprus.
Prices are set by the cartel (same guys you apply to for a license to run a pharmacy)
Lol. Europeans complaining bout price of medicine. *cries in American*
If I could take a guess…its bcs we are island. What that means? Transportation through air or sea. And they must keep them cold in special environment and meds cant be shake by wave or smth ,this kind of transportation costs A LOT.
🙂
On the positive side, everything is dirt cheap with a GESY subscription. I’d rather have it this way than like it was in Russia: cheap or expensive, if you have a prescription, you have to buy it yourself unless it’s a special case covered by some kind of government program (which was the case only *once* in my life).
This makes me so mad. I’m chronically ill and I’m on meds every day. It’s so expensive. Doesn’t help that wages in Cyprus are terrible.
That’s why no drugs left in north cyprus, the prices are incredible cheaper in occupied side
It’s the suppliers who set the prices, not the pharmacies. Cyprus is a small market so the manufacturers raise prices in order not to lose profit. It’s also an island so you have to take into consideration transportation costs as well. But the medicine you bought can be obtained through GESY, and you would only pay 1 euro, so….
Other comments here basically covet the reasons. I will just add scale. Ordering huge amounts of drugs can achieve economies of scale. Greece population 10M, Cyprus population 0.9M.
It’s the suppliers and the cost to import onto the island – not the pharmacies!! This is true of any materials not made in Cyprus itself. Same phenomenon for the Greek islands vs. mainland Greece. 🤷♂️
It’s cheaper if you don’t ask for a receipt
Cypriot business always screw us in different ways
America: that’ll be 20k
Smaller market, higher prices.
Fr tho, my local pharmacy is closed. Because apparently, they’re closed every Wednesday. What if someone is sick?
Did you try to buy car parts in Lithuania? There are 2-x times cheaper than on the island. That is the tax for island life, and I hate that.
I work in health insurance in Greece and Cyprus.
Why didn’t you get that from the GESY?
If you go to a hospital, Cyprus is cheaper than Greece but I understand that diagnostics is where they screw you
Buy from the north.
They are not screwing you. Medicines in Greece are cheaper than in other european countries.
Pharmacies in Cyprus have no saying on the pricing of medication.
Reasons why drugs are more expensive in Cyprus than Greece could be numerous.
1) The obvious, transportation costs are a lot higher. Especially for medication because they have to be transported in very specific, highly regulated way.
2) government needs the prices high tο collect more VAT
3) Higher wages in Cyprus for people that work in the pharmaceutical industry.
4)Most factories do not manufacture for Cyprus because its a very small market, instead they refer the cypriot distributors to buy from the Greek distributors. Hence basically not buying directly from the source, so inevitably higher prices.
5) Greed from the distributors.
Yeah most medicine are produced in Greece thats why. 80% of the Cyprus pharmaceutical supplies are produced in Greece. Its cheaper in Greece because there is not oversea transportation cost!