The consumer and competition division said that of 39 products which Labour acting leader Charles Mangion said were costing between two and 84 per cent more, only seven had actually gone up in price.

The division would be investigating to see if their prices were justified. It said that from investigations it had made, it had found that eight of the products which had been mentioned were not registered as medicines; the price of three of them had not gone up last year; Noprilam had not only not gone up in price from e13.39 to e14.86 but had actually gone down from e14.86 to e13.39; the manufacturer of a medicine whose price had risen by over 84 per cent had inadvertently quoted the price for a box of 30 tablets as the price for one of 60 and in the last consignment had made good the error, meaning that the consumer had benefited from this mistake for two years. This medicine was now selling below the average European price.

The division said only four medicines had gone up in price in the last two months of 2007. Of the medicines which today cost more, six were not selling for more than the average in Europe, 13 which sold in Malta were cheaper than in those countries where they were found, and seven only were found to be selling elsewhere cheaper than in Malta.