Better late than never: Spanish government sets maximum price of antigen tests to 2.94 euros

College of pharmacists warns against online antigen tests 'without guarantees'

The Spanish government has set a maximum price of 2.94 euros for all antigen tests sold at pharmacies, and the measure will be implemented from Saturday.
Carolina Darias, the minister of Health, has announced that the Spanish government has agreed to set a maximum price of 2.94 euros for antigen tests. Spain’s Partido Popular had asked for the price to be set at 2 euros.
“During the recent time of market tension, our essential objective was to guarantee the supply, and now that we have achieved this, we have moved on to focus on the regulation of a maximum retail price”.
The measure will be applied to all authorised antigen tests sold at pharmacies from Saturday, January 15.
The Ministry of Health has insisted that in order to establish the price, they “considered the prices of the week just before Christmas and September 20 – 21”.
The reduction in the price of antigen tests was announced by President Pedro Sánchez during an interview a few days ago.
The president justified not having taken the measure before, when the demand was even higher, because the priority at that time was to focus on guaranteeing a supply of tests in a very tense situation.
Between December 13 and 26, 11.2 million tests were sold in Spain, more than half of the 20.4 million put up for sale since last summer.
The measure has arrived late, according to consumer associations and opposition parties.
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Written by

Tamsin Brown

Originally from London, Tamsin is based in Malaga and is a local reporter for the Euro Weekly News covering Spanish and international news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.

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