"I did not say generic medicines are of inferior quality."

The claim in context

PN Leader Alex Borg has stated publicly: "I did not say generic medicines are of inferior quality." The denial came after a controversy in which Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela referred Borg to the Standards Commissioner over earlier remarks about generics.

The timeline of statements

In October 2025, speaking at a political activity in Gozo, Borg argued that a future Nationalist government would "guarantee good quality medicines — not generics." The Malta Medicines Authority and the Superintendence of Public Health issued a joint clarification stating that generic medicines are equivalent in quality and effectiveness to branded products.

Following the political backlash, Borg later softened his position, saying "it's not that generic medicines are inferior" and that he had been raising concerns about supply rather than quality. The Standards Commissioner ultimately found no formal breach.

The clean reading of the record is that the original Gozo remarks did imply that generics were inferior, even if the explicit word "inferior" was not used. The later denial reframes rather than retracts.

Bottom line

The denial is technically defensible on a narrow word-choice reading but misleads about the substance of the original Gozo statement, which was widely interpreted — including by the Medicines Authority — as casting doubt on generics' quality. Verdict: Misleading.