Patients look to Czech Republic for cheaper medicines

Pharmacies on Poland's Southern border are losing customers, as people are crossing the border to the Czech Republic to buy cheaper Czech medicines. "Their pharmacies offer many cheaper medicines, antibiotics, and contr aceptives. Increasingly often we find customers coming into our pharmacy and comparing our prices to Czech ones," says an employee of a pharmacy in Gucholazy in the Opolskie voivodship. Doctors confirm this, saying that every now and then patients ask them whether the quality of medicines sold in the Czech Republic is inferior to Polish ones. The biggest hit among Polish shoppers in the Czech Republic are herbal and natural medicines, such as those containing shark fin or extracts from lemon pips. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B2) T.J.