Health Minister Chris Fearne slammed agents who import medicines to Malta for not “tendering the contract with the government,” and selling medicines to the private sector for a “larger profit margin,” even though the medicine may be scarce in Malta.

Fearne said this in response to a parliamentary question put forward by PL MP Cressida Galea who was asking for information on the medicines the government has brought in over the years.

PN spokesperson for Health Ian Vassallo, from a Facebook post on Saturday, said that the fluorouracil chemotherapy drug used to treat internal cancers has been out of stock for more than seven days.

Contacted by The Malta Independent on Monday, Vassallo said that up until Sunday night, there has been no confirmation of when this medicine is going to be made available. He said that the information he has is that a supply has been ordered.

Fearne addressed this and said that the medicine arrived on Wednesday and will be going straight to the oncology centre to be used.

Fearne insisted that the government has done everything possible to make different medicines free for Maltese citizens. He mentioned how following the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, there has been a widespread scarcity of medicine.

Fearne said that the way forward is to change the system of how medicines are bought. He said that now the government needs to plan and prepare how it will buy medicine beforehand.

Without knowing that Covid-19 was around the corner, Fearne said that the government unintentionally implemented a similar system when Brexit took place where it ordered a stockpile of important medicines for six months.