Office for Kosovo and Metohija
Government of the Republic of Serbia

Serbian Medicines in Entire Kosovo and Metohija

Assistant Director in the Office for Kosovo and Metohija and Liaison Officer at the EU Mission to Priština, Dejan Pavićević, and Director of the Priština Medicine Agency, Arianit Jakupi, met today in northern Kosovska Mitrovica with the representatives of privately-owned pharmacies and pharmaceutical wholesalers from the north of Kosovo and Metohija, and presented new procedures for marketing medicines from the central Serbia in the province. The new procedures have been agreed in Brussels in late May, in the framework of the dialogue between Belgrade and Priština.

“This agreement will ensure that medicines produced in Serbia are marketed across Kosovo and Metohija for the first time. This is important for all inhabitants of Kosovo and Metohija, but also for pharmacies, traders, medicine producers and pharmaceutical wholesalers from the central Serbia in the context of measures aimed at Serbian economy for the purpose of promoting investments and doing business in Kosovo and Metohija”, said Dejan Pavićević, Assistant Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija and Liaison Officer with the EU Mission to Priština.

Medicines and medical devices produced in central Serbia were not available in the entire territory of Kosovo and Metohija, as there was no modality for their trade.

Following the agreement on the status-neutral certificate for pharmaceutical products, closed in Brussels according to the model of the previously agreed phytosanitary and veterinary certificates, it will now be possible to register medicines and medical devices with the Kosovo Medicine Agency for the very first time, allowing unhindered sales in Kosovo and Metohija to all producers from the central Serbia.

Trading will be done via pharmaceutical wholesalers, of which four are currently registered in the north of Kosovo and Metohija, which is expected to ensure a more efficient control of the distributed medicines - all to the immediate benefit of end users.

Pursuant to the Customs Agreement from January 2013, all companies trading in goods in the so-called controlled mode (certain foodstuffs, medicines, alcoholic beverages, oil, tobacco, etc.) must be licensed. Commercial entities trading in such goods already obtained their licences by 1 January 2015 and have been trading freely since then.

The deadline to register pharmacies was 31 May. Those who failed to meet this deadline will be able obtain licence at any time.

Assistant Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija especially emphasised that the medical centres and pharmacies in Kosovo and Metohija which form part of the health system of Serbia would continue to be regularly supplied by the Republic Health Insurance Fund and financed from the budget of the Republic of Serbia.