Egypt to produce cancer treatments locally in partnership with foreign companies

CAIRO – 13 December 2022: Official at the Ministry of Health and Population Olfat Ghorab stated in a phone-in Tuesday that there is a plan to produce 76 medications of high value, including those for cancer treatment, by the end of 2023.

Ghorab clarified that the plan would secure such medications in half the price, and create jobs to the graduates of schools of pharmacology and science. She added that the production will be carried out in partnership with American and French companies.

Head of the Healthcare Committee at the House of Representatives Ashraf Hatem told Al Watan newspaper Saturday that Egypt has no shortage in medicinal drugs and that local companies fulfill 90 percent of needs.

Presidential Adviser for Health and Preventive Affairs Dr. Mohamed Awad Taj El-Din stated in March that Egyptian pharmaceutical companies had not been affected by the Russian-Ukrainian crisis.

“The companies always have strategic reserves of pharmaceutical materials and we have a sufficient supply for local production,” he clarified, adding that the government would suspend medicine exports, if the local market experiences a shortage.

Chairman of the Medicinal Drugs Authority Tamer Essam declared in January that Egypt’s exports of medicines had unprecedentedly risen by 35 percent.