Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity set out to establish its own drug agency after the BiH Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices banned the use of oxygen in the RS health sector in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, which was an attack on the health of citizens, RS Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic said Wednesday.

“We couldn’t allow what the BiH Agency did at that time, and that is why we founded our own. And we will go further in the implementation of all our acts in that area, whether someone likes it or not,” Viskovic said, commenting on the request of BiH Presidency Chairman Sefik Dzaferovic to the Constitutional Court of BiH to review the constitutionality of the Law on Medicines and Medical Devices of the RS.

He explained that the move of the BiH Medicines Agency was aimed at the health of local patients, although it was later proven that the oxygen was absolutely correct.

The BiH Medicines Agency prevented a company from the RS from importing and delivering oxygen to the Banja Luka hospital because the oxygen was not for medical use. On the contrary, tests have shown that it was industrial oxygen, not fit for medical use because it was not as pure.

For days, the RS had no oxygen supplier until the situation on the global market improved and other companies stepped in.

“While I’m in this position, I will never allow any institution from the level of the BiH government to do something bad to the RS, and especially to patients who were treated for the virus thanks to that oxygen. And we have shown and proved that the oxygen that was used in the RS health sector was of better quality than what was called the “medical oxygen,” said Viskovic.