740 kilograms of medicines worth nearly 120 million euros have been seized over the past two years by the anti-smuggling authorities in an attempt to enter the Albanian market.

The President of the Pharmacists’ Order considers this a large quantity of contraband drugs but also states that this phenomenon has been ongoing for years.

The cause is the shortage of drugs in the market.

“It is a phenomenon fueled by an Albanian reality that is driven by the absence of all the necessary drugs in the country,” said Diana Toma, President of the Pharmacists’ Order to Euronews Albania.

Legally, medicines in Albania are introduced through import permits or by registering them.

“The first obstacle faced by different companies is obtaining this type of permit. It is not about a company having a certain drug, and let’s just add another one; it is not about drugs that are not available in the market,” added Toma.

But this is only what has been seized. In many cases, small quantities of drugs have entered our country and are being sold in the black market without any control.

“It is an illegal form of medication, which, on the one hand, provides the opportunity to fulfill a demand, but on the other hand, poses a risk to the quality of what is being used, not only due to the quality of the produced drug but also due to the alteration of the drug’s properties as a result of mishandling within the conditions, standards, criteria, and even the administration of the medication,” Toma further explained.

During the year 2022, over 6 million kilograms of medicines and medical supplies, with a value of 27 billion euros, were legally imported into Albania. They mainly come from Greece, Turkey, North Macedonia, and Serbia.