Medicine prices in north increase by 30 per cent

Medicine prices in the north have increased by over 30 per cent after Turkey updated its medicine pricing law.

The law stipulates the retail price exchange rate for all medicinal products intended for human use, with the value of one euro previously set at 10.76TL. As of last Saturday, that figure has been increased to exactly 14.0387TL, adding 30 per cent onto the Turkish lira price of all pharmaceuticals in Turkey.

As a result, prices in the north increased by the same amount on Monday.

“We have been expecting this price hike for about seven or eight months,” said Cyprus Turkish pharmacists’ union general secretary Dicle Tekiner. “It is the result of a re-evaluation of the euro exchange rate against the current exchange rate. Drugs sold in pharmacies are priced accordingly.”

In addition, a slight alteration in Turkey’s VAT rate on pharmaceuticals, from eight per cent to 10 per cent, added an extra two per cent onto the sale price of pharmaceuticals in Turkey and the north.

The price increase will also impact Greek Cypriots who go to the north for their drugs because they were cheaper, although since the introduction of Gesy these numbers have dropped.