Prices of 36 medicines to decrease in coming weeks, minister tells Parliament

Kevin Schembri Orland



Thursday, 29 January 2026, 10:17
Last update: about 1 hour ago

36 medicines are expected to see their prices reduce in the coming weeks, Health Minister Jo-Etienne Abela said in Parliament on Wednesday.

Documents tabled by the minister show that these medicines include Esomeprazole 20mg and 40mg, Fluzac 20mg, Sertraline 50mg and 100mg, among others.

He was responding to a question posed by PL MP Rosianne Cutajar, who asked about a document tabled the previous day by PN MP Stephen Spiteri.

Spiteri on Tuesday had said that a legal notice that increased tariffs on the importation of medicines resulted in medicine prices rising, and tabled a list of some medicines which increased. But on Wednesday, the Health Minister slammed the list.

Abela said he spoke to the Medicines Authority, saying it was a serious allegation. He said that the list of 101 products presented by the PN MP “includes many products that are not considered to be medicines. How can the price of products that are not subject to tariffs increase due to these tariffs?”

Abela said that from the medicines listed, 21 were not subject to tariffs. “The rest of the medicines, their price was fixed before the tariffs were issued,” he said, questioning how the tariffs could have raised their prices.

He asked where Spiteri got the list from.

Abela compared the price of a medicine to that in another country, Ireland. A Ventolin inhaler, he said, sells in Malta for around €7, but in Ireland a pack of two costs €23.

He said that in 2023, the Medicines Authority negotiated with medical companies the reduction in price of 66 medicines, and those medicines remained with the same price. “It is not true that their prices rose.”

He said that after the tariffs were issued, the Medicines Authority has been in negotiations with medicine companies in the country to, with or without tariffs, continue negotiating a reduction of medicine prices, and here the minister submitted the list of 36 medicines which are expected to see prices reduce in the coming weeks.