The amount of medicines which Bosnia could receive through a large European tender for the procurement of drugs for the treatment of coronavirus, will most likely not be in the same quantities as requested from the European Commission after Bosnia's slow administration finally joined the procurement, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) published on Wednesday.

The Commission explained to BIRN that there is a possibility that Bosnia will not receive important medicines due to high demand, despite claims by local authorities that there the country will suffer no consequences due to its delays to the European tender.

Darragh Cassidy, the European Commission's public relations officer for Health and Food Safety, which procures the medicines, confirmed to BIRN that everything depends on the results of the ongoing procurement procedure.

BIRN wrote about the procurement of medicines used in the treatment of worst cases of Covid-19 in April this year when Bosnian authorities praised the country's participation in the EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly's activities, claiming they will almost certainly get the medicines the country needs.

On that occasion, the Civil Affairs Ministry told BIRN that the medicines “will appear in Bosnia as soon as all procedures are completed,” The procedures were completed, but without Bosnia's participation, they wrote.

Cassidy responded briefly to this claim, explaining that “the European Commission's requests for information in the shortest possible term are made so as to publish calls for tenders and contracts quickly and without delay, which is most important in a pandemic.”

In the late submission of the list of drugs contained: Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, Kaletra, Interferon Beta-1a, Interferon Beta-1b, Actemrom (Tocilizumab).