A special governmental commission charged with setting the price of medicines (CIPM) has fixed the price of an antigen test-kit at 2.94 euros.

This new price will be effective from this Saturday and they will only be available at that price from pharmacies, even though several large supermarket chains have offered to sell them at that price.

The Minister for Health, Carolina Darias, said that the decision was taken to make the product more affordable via pharmacies.

The Director-General for the Cartera Común de Servicios del SNS y Farmacia, Patricia Lacruz, said that they had arrived at this price by finding the average price on the market since July (when it became available) and the week before Christmas, which was when the demand and price rocketed.

Making comparisons with other countries the price set by the government is amongst the cheapest:

Germany: 1.75 euros
Portugal: 2.1 euros
Greece: 2.7 euros
France: 6.01 euros (although free for those who have been vaccinated)
Italy: between five and ten euros
Ireland: 8.0 euros
Belgium: between five and ten
The Netherlands: 10 euros
Switzerland: 20 euros.

Editorial comment: this is another case of the Central Government shutting the stable door after the horses have bolted. The abuse took place over Christmas but the Government waited until now to fix a price. The same happened over the masks but that time they made the excuse that the EU wouldn’t let them charge a lower IVA price, which they later admitted was not true.

(News: Spain)