The Competition Authority has imposed fines on 24 warehouses supplying the pharmaceutical market with pre-medical materials in Albania. According to the decision of the competition authority, these fines were imposed due to the increase in the price of masks, disinfectants, and alcohol with the onset of the covid pandemic 19.
For 14 companies, the decision was taken to fine them with 1 million leks for competition violations, while 10 other pharmaceutical warehouses were fined with 2 million leks because they refused to provide information to the Competition Authority when started the investigation for the increase of prices of these products.
The competition has also decided to launch an in-depth investigation of this market from November last year to September 2020, in addition to the preliminary investigation that started in March, which ended with these penalties.
The Competition Commission has fined up to 10% of the turnover a large company that supplies the market with the flu vaccine, after selling this drug only to the network of pharmacies where it owns 75% of the shares.
But in the meantime, these fines have come as a surprise to the distributors who have reacted through the association of pharmaceutical distributors through a press statement where they explain that the members of the association have learned the decision of the competition authority through the media and no official decision has been received. On the other hand, it is said that some pharmaceutical warehouses have been unjustly fined as they do not even deal with the trade of masks or disinfectants.
The pharmaceutical distributors are said to be "called" to the market of pre-medical products by pharmacies as a result of the needs of the people for these products. The wholesale of paramedical products is not the main activity of pharmaceutical distributors, who mainly supply medicines and medical products.
On the other hand, the distributors emphasize that the Albanian pharmaceutical market had no shortage of any medicine during the pandemic for patients, considering here not only the difficulties and shortages that were created in the international market due to the export blockade but also the difficult conditions in which the employees worked.